If you’re a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race (or, preferably, Paris is Burning), you already know that reading is fundamental. In case you don’t know, we here at Dirge are big fans of reading and books in general. That’s why we were horrified to find out that AI companies, including Anthropic, are buying old books, scanning them for data, and destroying them in the process, even if the books are rare. (Read the whole article, it’ll make you sick.) We’ve become a nation that hates to read, think critically, or give much thought to anything. There has been an increase in book ban laws over the last few years, and a new one is due to hit the Senate floor at any moment that directly targets school libraries across the country. That is all completely by design (rhymes with “smashism”), and I encourage you to think about that on your own time, but that’s not entirely the point of this post. We’re here to help you figure out how to read more, expand your mind, and do it for little or no cost. Win/win.
The first thing you can do?
USE YOUR PUBLIC LIBRARY!
Oh my god, libraries are so important. They are one of the last third spaces left in this country that don’t require you to be anything or do anything except show up.1 There are usually huge children’s sections full of books, toys, and so many activities for kids to participate in. You can use the internet for free on their computers, and you can print for free or cheap, depending on the library and how much you need to print. It’s quiet. Chairs and comfortable spaces generally abound, and if you want to sit and read a book or magazine in one spot all day, nobody will stop you.
They also offer so much more than physical books, including DVDs of movies and TV shows; programs and classes for kids and adults alike; e-books; audiobooks; online movies and shows; and it’s becoming more common for them to also have lending libraries. I’m currently quite spoiled; my local library lets you borrow board games. They have a seed library where you can pick up to ten packets of seeds per year in the spring so you can plant native flowers, vegetables, or herbs at home. There is a lending library for a plethora of items, including wifi hotspots and household tools. In the basement, there is a huge maker space with sewing machines, 3D printers, craft areas, and manuals on how to use everything they have. They host a mini Comic Con style event every year with vendors and people running around in cosplay. Yes, it’s nerd heaven. Yes, I love it.
Of course, this all depends on the library branch. I know that I am currently quite lucky to have a huge, renovated library with a million amenities just down the street from me, and that this is not typical. When I lived in Denver, my closest branch was extremely small, and almost everything I wanted had to be obtained by inter-library loan, aka, a different branch of the Denver library system. (This is something else most libraries do, especially if there are multiple branches: You can get your books from any of the libraries in your local system.)
I’ve had a library card everywhere I have ever lived,2 and I got my first one when I was four years old. Call me biased, but even the tiny little branches of libraries are worth supporting. Why? Well, patronage is a huge way libraries get funding. The more people continually and repeatedly use the library, the more likely the library will retain (or expand) its funding every year. Repeated patronage is how all businesses stay alive; it’s just a little more dire when it’s not a business, and its only real function is to serve the public and its needs, meaning it is particularly vulnerable while living under a smashist machine.
What if my library branch sucks?/I can’t get to my local library easily
Well, first of all, I’m sorry. We live in a shitass country that doesn’t care about its people, and living in that reality sucks. That’s valid. Thankfully, we are in the internet age, and you have so many free or low yearly fee options. You’ll need to check with your local library, but odds are they use Libby and/or Hoopla for their ebooks, audiobooks,3 and digital downloads. They both have websites and apps so you can literally read from your cell phone. Incredible what technology can do these days.
You can look up reciprocal and partner libraries easily using ReciproCard. Then, when you find other libraries you can use, you can add those cards to your Libby account and therefore browse ebooks from multiple libraries. This is especially helpful if your local library doesn’t have a huge amount of ebooks or audiobooks; nobody wants to wait four months for a book they’re dying to read right now.
They also have a huge list of free library cards you can access and add to your Libby account. Most of the free accounts are age-restricted, aka, just for teens and people up to their mid-20s, to guarantee that younger people living in states with book bans can get what they want to read. There is, however, a huge queer liberation archive that you can access completely for free just by signing up, giving you access to a huge amount of queer ebooks and audiobooks.4
If you’re able/willing to pay a monthly fee, you can apply for non-resident membership to libraries around the country. Memberships range from $30-125 a year, depending on the library. Sure, that sounds expensive, but considering most new release hardback books are at least $25-30 these days, as long as you use your membership to read four books in a year, you’ve recouped your cost and then some.
But I want physical books!
I respect that! I still predominantly read physical books, though my e-reader is also stocked as it’s so handy for reading while waiting at appointments and during travel. I’m not going to tell you not to shop at your local indie bookstore, or even at Barnes & Noble if there’s no other place convenient for you to buy books. Bookshop.org is fantastic as well, but this all assumes that money isn’t an issue.
My favorite place to buy books for cheap online is Thriftbooks. You have no idea how many books I’ve purchased from here, and they now have a buy-back program, which I’ve already used more than once, and you can earn free books through their loyalty program. There’s a huge array of new, used, and rare books. Also, most thrift stores have a decent used book section. If you love an antique/estate sale, they often have books, so check out where your local sales are.
But you want free! Okay; I have ideas!
First: the Little Free Library. I can’t tell you the number of books I’ve picked up and dropped off at various LFLs over the years, all around the country. Look up your local LFLs and head over to see what they have. The good/bad thing about them is they usually have either significant turnover or are stagnant, but either way, your participation in them helps! Take some of those books that have been sitting and put some fresh ones in there, or go often to see what new offerings your neighbors are donating.
Join your local Buy Nothing Project group on Facebook or on their app. This is also hit and miss, I know. My local Facebook group is excellent and huge; my friend who lives 20 minutes away says that nobody uses hers. The good news is, there’s probably one for your community, and there is almost always someone offering a selection of books. I haven’t used the official app yet, but I’m absolutely downloading it now!
Host a book swap with friends/local community members! Easy way to offload books you no longer want and pick up books that people hopefully loved, maybe hated, but either way they have opinions and will tell you about them; I guarantee it.
Why do you care so much about reading?/Why should I care about reading?
Well, there’s the aforementioned smashist regime leading the country, trying to ban books. There’s AI rampantly destroying the way we think, the way we process information (or not), the way we write, and are literally destroying books for fun/because they can. Most Americans read fewer than four books in 2025. If you can’t recognize or properly critique what is happening to you and your country, you’re more likely to just slide straight into fasc … I mean, smashism. Being able to read means you can comprehend, critique, empathize, and argue. You can form cogent opinions, and actually be capable of a modicum of research like so many people on the Internet claim they do before they recommend you take a GLP-1 with an Ivermectin chaser to ward off the flu or whatever, but with truth and facts and not whatever the fuck those people are selling.
Also, if you didn’t notice, most of my recommendations come with the concept of community. We’ve been taught the American way of individualism and solitary self-reliance for so long that we’ve neglected community as a concept and a reality. To be in community with the people around you, even if you don’t like them or agree with them, is an absolute necessity. You need to know who lives around you, because those are the people who ground your everyday reality. Doesn’t mean you have to see them all the time, or become best friends, or even like them, really. But feeling part of a community leads to lower stress levels, fewer feelings of isolation, and a general overall happier life. Don’t believe me? Maybe you’ll believe the CDC, Psychology Today, or the Science Journal for Kids (and Dirge readers). Of course, forming your own community of loved ones is hugely beneficial. See the aforementioned benefits plus a social circle you can rely on, and who doesn’t need that these days?
Not able to do all that? Stuck with an online-only community and feeling lonely? Time for the next-best option: READ. A. BOOK. There are so many benefits to reading books, not the least of which is that we can discuss books together. (The weirder, the better.)
Read now before they take away your options.5 Read now because there are so many good books out there, all in line to be destroyed by AI. Read now before it’s too late. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
- I swear to Dolly, if you come up in here complaining about houseless people being in/around the library, you can go straight back to the hell that birthed you. You’re closer to being one of those people than you are a billionaire. Would you rather they sleep, shit, and piss on the street in front of you? Patty, don’t start. ↩︎
- Rough estimation is nine over the course of my lifetime. Not too shabby. ↩︎
- Audiobooks count as reading. You can’t spit on decades of oral (hehe) storytelling tradition to say that a way to make books more accessible to people “doesn’t count.” I refer you to footnote one. ↩︎
- I literally just signed up and added this to my Libby account; holy shit it is FANTASTIC. Took about two minutes to sign up. Do it! ↩︎
- They can try, but they’ll catch these hands first. ↩︎
