I link to a lot of books here, because I read, re-read, re-listen to, listen to, and enjoy a lot of books, and I want to share it with whomever finds this place, because these books are worth my time, and should be worth yours. This website is my name, so I can tell you that growing up, the meanest thing kids called me was Chef-Boy-R-Read. Not the most original, or even mean, but apparently it stuck with me. Literacy doesn’t seem to be the silver bullet I used to think it was, due in part to the absolute amount of written garbage that exists these days (mostly from LLMs, but also from idiots), but I certainly still think it’s very important, and good. We as a species can deal with that other nonsense, even though it doesn’t seem as easy as it should be.

Also, since I’m on the internet, you can be assured that I am existing in a capitalist society that for some reason, requires money to be a living human. Not gonna get into that in this article though. Because I exist in this society, I have to play that game. I suppose I could get a regular job (and I’m very good at that when I do), and I’ve done that for most of my career (if you are interested, check out my resume page). I can also get a cut by promoting stuff, and companies to buy it from. It doesn’t change your bottom line (yet), and it doesn’t change the author’s cut (AFAIK - last book about that I read was Guy Kawasaki’s thing about self publishing, and things have changed since then).

The Amazon Affiliates program has been around for a long time. Everything you buy for something like 30 days after you click my link (assuming you don’t click another affiliate link, which is unlikely these days) I get credit for, and a portion of. It’s super easy to say that I’m taking money out of amazon’s pocket, and I’m putting it in mine. Seems good, right? It’s not, but doing it is easy, and it is quick.

I had to rewrite this piece a lot. Sometimes I would crack a bottle of something inebriating and rant and rave about society, and the anger I have at those in power and the systems we’ve let grow. Sometimes I would light a bowl of something inebriating and expand on the wonder of our species, and expand on the beauty and resilience of the human race, filled with hope for the future. Sometimes I would sit in front of a blinking cursor, demanding that I be literary and write with beautiful prose, even if I had nothing to say. Sometimes I would delete everything, and write a single sentence that just answers the question posed by the title.

This is what I came up with.

Companies are neither good nor evil. They are entities only from a disgustingly legal and cultural perspective, and barely at that. Bookshop.org does more good than amazon does. Or rather, Bookshop.org hurts fewer people than amazon does. That is why the prominent Bookshop.org link. Bookshop.org pays me when you buy through the big link, and since I support the general fund, part of my cut gets distributed among independent bookstores. Amazon also pays me when you click those icon links, but you shouldn’t. If you already use amazon, and are comfortable with that, click that one. It’ll be relatively seamless as of the time of this writing. You’ll get your media. It might even be cheaper. Nothing I do here will change that. If you’ve got a favorite local bookstore already, Bookshop.org lets you buy from them specifically through the same site. I don’t get a cut, but I consider that a better option than either one of my links. Shit, actually go to your local bookstore. Inhale that smell of paper and see those shelves in the mostly poor lighting. Have a conversation with the person behind the counter, and use them to tell you about other books like the ones I recommend, or something else. I don’t get a monetary cut when that happens, but I do get a bit of a smile on my face envisioning the kind of world that actions like that help create. Do that. Or go to your library. Download the overdrive (or whatever it is these days) app, and just borrow, and enjoy the media while knowing it’s going away when you’re done.

If you’re going to consume media, consume amazing media; whether that is books, audiobooks, podcasts, youtube channels, TV shows, movies, forums, discord servers, or something else. If you’re going to buy media, and you want to support me, click the Bookshop.org link when it’s there, and the amazon icon when it’s not. Most importantly, connect with people. Real people. Connect over something you love. Or over something you hate. If either of those happen to be things I talked about here, feel free to share my link. I’d be totally cool with that.