Book CommuniTEA: That Single Employee At Goodreads Is Working Overtime &This Books Is Illegal👀 [CC]

[@ylenia2246]

I literally ended up arguing with someone on TikTok just yesterday who said that the Z-Library issue is black and white, and that even if reading and education are rights, if we do not have neither money nor access to libraries, then we should not read at all or simply stick to classics, and I think that was such a privileged take on the matter. I do not think that if the person who made these affirmations lived in a third world country they would have said the same thing.

[@klc7275]

Love that argument. It’s a right…but only for those with money 🙄

[@brooke5258]

Very privileged. Even libraries don't have everything. Not all catalogs are created equal. And international readers have even less access. Or spend more than the book for shipping.

[@luciachi5335]

hell I live in a 2nd world country and access to books and information can get difficult

[@rosej5424]

Had this exact same argument and wtih the same privileged take, its so ridiculous that people think everyone has all the money to spend on books. Either that or they've forgotten how expensive books are...

[@dekxu6673]

I understand entertainment works, such as romance books, but things such as textbooks should be free.

[@dragonuprising8378]

I feel sorry for the people that needed zlibrary for college/university. But considering how big it was, I doubt it'll be gone for long

[@danarodz3275]

Yes that’s what I used them for. College books can be incredibly expensive and often time they are barely used yet required. Thankfully I’m already done with school but I hope this doesn’t die out completely cause it was a huge money saver for college students.

[@laddybug3]

I discovered in the college library a few required textbook. The discovery happened after the textbooks were brought from the college bookstore. Even the public library had them. Found out if you lived on college campus you could use the public library. (Not sure if all colleges are like that). Same if your business you work at you can use the public library, and get a card. My home public library even have e-readers with books on them. There is not late fees anymore too.

[@mymy-cm9ib]

You can access it through tor (the onion router) now

[@AlannaGabby]

The way Z Library had access to everything so freely is so important.

[@salomelopesmello]

During covid, z-library was the only way I could get through my master dissertation. Everything was closed, nobody would grant private access even limited to make a dissertation. It was great and a powerful source.

[@Anonymous-iu5hh]

TikTok ruins everything, I needed z library to get my textbooks….As you said textbooks are a scam and now I need to find another alternative or I’ll have to start renting physical textbooks (keep in mind I highlight my textbook pdfs and keep it on my iPad so I have my textbooks everywhere)🙃

[@zinzeenoel129]

Try library genesis

[@hourstooshort1447]

It still works through tor, look up how to access it

[@Anonymous-iu5hh]

@@zinzeenoel129 I’ll definitely look at this one! Thank you

[@Anonymous-iu5hh]

@@hourstooshort1447 I’ll definitely try doing this too! Zlib will forever be my favorite online library for my textbooks😭

[@KittyxKult]

@@zinzeenoel129 I second libgen. No guilt in stealing textbooks bc they shouldn’t make them that expensive period 😮‍💨

[@ghadam.hassaan4143]

High five for how gracefully you handled the zlibrary dilemma. To a lot of people, piracy is a necessary evil. I read 100+ books a year. If I were to walk the straight and narrow, I cannot afford a quarter of that and even if I could they don't sell most of these books in my country. The only libraries available to me are university libraries that only offer textbooks and reference books dated back to at least a decade prior. Considering that I only download what is already available, no author/publisher is losing any money on my behalf because the choices are whether I read their book for free or I don't read their book at all. I refuse to be lumped together with privileged people who can afford books and have access to them and still pirate.

[@ScorpionFlower95]

I've seen a couple of people on Goodreads saying that they're glad z-library was taken down. How privileged you gotta be to not understand why that's an issue to other people? I personally, live in a city where we don't have a library and the nearest one has a very limited catalogue. And the biggest issue, is that I've had trouble concentrating while reading bigger books. So what I'd do, was to download the pdf files and upload them on a text-to-speech app and listen to them as audiobooks without giving my money to Bezos 😡 Also, what do you mean that someone was bragging about that, come oooon 😭

[@MJSpice]

Same. No library where I live and the books are expensive.

[@pandaaaaa4]

have you tried other audiobook options like libby - because those don't pay Bezo anything

[@AnaCarolinaVanzetta]

I'm going to be honest here, as a brazilian it's very difficult to have access to some types of books. They usually only publish YA and romance, or fantasy romance. If I were to buy every book I'm interest in, I would be broke. In our coin, each book is about 150 $ and our minimal wage is about 1.200 $. What is published here and in my interest, I buy, fair and square, but high fantasy is not. So, yes, I do download books from these websites, otherwise I wouldn't be able to read what I love. Do I find this unfair for authors? Yes, but it's also unfair to readers. I'm all about buying books, but if they are at a fair price.

[@summerb5153]

I live in Iran. Z-Library was my only way to read books because the government literally has banned every way for us to get our hands on these books unless they are the way they want us to read which are heavily censored. I wish I had my own library. I wish I could buy books. But it's out of my hands. And this is just depressing.

[@CozyReaderKelly]

I do not understand why that woman is so upset over that children's book. If you don't want your kid to read it, then just don't let them read it. But stop trying to keep all the other kids from reading a book that could teach them to have empathy for other people or that helps them feel seen inside a book.

[@am13007]

About the zlib ban - I'm from India, so we experienced the ban like two months before the rest of the world. That was because our SC was approached by some economics and taxes authors about how their books were illegally on the website and thus the SC decided to ban it. And let me tell you - it's horrendous. For me zlib was only to download books I want to read (as a hobby) because in a country like ours, new releases cost about a 1000-5000 INR (which is a LOT for a book) and most of the times, they're just unavailable. There's barely any libraries or bookstores in near vicinities and even the ones that are there are abandoned, old, and 99% of the books there are in our mother tongue, 1% of the books are old English classics. If we are gutted by the loss of the website, I can't even imagine what people who used it to download text books are going through. Education and knowledge shouldn't come with a price tag, it should be accessible to all.

[@Citizenofyoutube]

Hey, I am from India too but I can easily access zlib from tor. There are many tutorials on twitter/Tumblr/reddit on how to access zlib and you can try it if you want to.

[@bhsprinkle]

Something that sadly a lot of people agree with but never occurs. Education is becoming a luxury and market instead of a necessity. So sad that you're being so roughly impacted.

[@thatskums]

Yeah there was a problem. I couldn't access z library through the main link but the single log in link was still working.

[@LexTime89]

When it comes to text books, there is absolutely no justification for the amount of money being charged and people should definitely have access. An algebra book shouldn’t cost more than the paper it’s printed on because the publisher didn’t DO anything. It’s a bit murkier in regards to things like specialized historical texts, because the author actually did have to go to a significant amount of time and effort. Unfortunately, I would consider fiction to be a luxury.

[@m.i.4339]

Loved this episode! As a librarian, I do want to point out that one of the ways you can help stem the tide of book bans is by paying attention to your local school and library boards! And if someone is trying to ban a book, you need to show up! Show your support for the book and for the staff of those schools and libraries! Write letters to the board members and superintendents and directors! Call them, email them, attend board meetings! Even if you don’t have a child in the district or in that community (because goodness that has not stopped would be book banners)! These hate groups make progress on these books bans because they are willing to show up and throw a fit, so those of us who do not want the intellectual freedom of young people to be challenged need to show up too!

[@brooke5258]

Local politics are so important in how to directly effect change in one's community. Watch who is sitting on your school board and city council.

[@amphoteric]

people who have money will easily pay for books because price is not an issue for them. i don't care if authors and publishers are sad their books are being pirated because the people who do this are the ones who don't have money or access to those books anyway. EDIT: also being forced to pay hundreds of dollars for textbooks is truly awful and there is honestly no need for academic texts to be so expensive.

[@_daniela_s]

I can recommend Story Graph! I think I switched from Goodreads to Story Graph last year and I'm very happy with it! They're also improving the app/website constantly and listening to users feedback. :) I know, thats not changing the Amazon rating problem or generally all the Goodreads problems that exists, but at least I'm no longer a part of that....

[@pinpilinpaux]

I will just add that their recommendations are actually useful/good ones based on what you've liked and not what they want to push on you. I've read a few of their recs and I've liked most of them (and the one I didn't I understand why the algorithm or whatever would think I'd like lol). I'm very happy I switched over.

[@lmac3869]

I switched too and never looked back.

[@erinh7450]

I really like Storygraph, I just wish it would have an option to share challenges with friends. I asked them about it and they thought that should be private?? But at least give me the *option* to share, even if just friends. That's part of the point of social media, no? But that's my only quibble, lol.

[@lmac3869]

@@erinh7450 I feel like I can do that in other ways so I'm willing to sacrifice it but it's something lots of people have mentioned.

[@klc7275]

@@pinpilinpaux Their recommendations are my favorite part. It makes me wonder how sites with way more money and employees can’t figure out a good algorithm.

[@EotuaDawnwalker]

Whenever pirate sites go down for tv shows and movies, another one always pops up within a week. Give it a week or so, and someone will have mirrored the z library to another domain.

[@loveSIX5]

Please tell me when you find it

[@TheKris47]

I feel like that Goodreads rating thing might also impact authors’ preorders. It seems to be pretty common for people to rate a book that hasn’t come out yet like 1 star, either as a cataloguing thing or just to be a jerk. So Goodreads needs to figure out how to crack down pre-release reviews when you don’t actually have an ARC. If someone hears about an upcoming book online and goes to preorder it, it’s not gonna be a good look to see a low rating that’s not legit.

[@brooke5258]

I noticed that before Viola Davis' memoir released. There were a bunch of 1 star ratings, ofc by racists. After the release, ratings shot up and it's now one of the top books of the year.

[@bhsprinkle]

Agreed. It could impact authors due to illegitimate ratings by people who haven't actually read the book.

[@maurinet2291]

It's funny because on Amazon proper, they won't let you review the book before it's out. But this can hurt debut authors too, presales are such a huge part of publishing.

[@diri07]

I’m from a European country (granted, a smaller one) and the news about Z library is just devastating for me. The best way I was able to get books was from there. Our libraries don’t have a huge selection of books in general and on top of that they only have a tiny amount of English books. I like reading in English as a way to practice, but also because books usually don’t get translated into my language for at least a couple of years after the initial publication. When it comes to buying books, I try to do my best to buy from my favourite authors - usually once a month. I even go to the few extremely expensive English bookstores that we have here and get some books there just to support book sales and authors. I also have a Scribd subscription, which I hope also supports authors to some degree, but I mainly use that for audiobooks, as I don’t like to read on a phone or a tablet. So in the end a majority of the books I read still come from Z-library (onto my e-reader). Not because I like pirating books, but because I simply don’t have other good ways to read the books I’m interested in. I really hope they can come back in some way because I’m a 100% sure that many people all over the world are in the same situation as me.

[@shinumi85]

The books and audiobooks on the catalogue are legal in Scribd, the uploaded by users are not. I also pay Scribd, but I own an Android e-reader where I can read the books without resorting to my phone or tablet. (Boox, Likebooks and there's a few other brands that use android on their e-readers and allow you to use apps for reading, unlike Kindle)

[@diri07]

@@shinumi85 that’s reassuring to hear about Scribd! I assumed most of it was legal as the quality of audiobooks is really good and they have a lot of new and popular books. I wasn’t sure how it works in terms of benefits for authors - but I looked it up and seems they receive a licensing fee. So yeah, hopefully it’s still one of the better choices out there, even if not perfect. I probably should have invested in an android e-reader too :/ mine is a kindle, so I can only read books that I upload on it or books bought on Amazon.

[@KrazyMinchi]

Most people pirate because affording more than 1 book a month is not plausible. Most of us read these books and decide to purchase the once we liked and we save up for more expensive editions. Where I live buying every book I want to read in a month is IMPOSSIBLE! They are expensive, take months to arrive and it is , at this point ,a luxury for young people. I understand the worry for authors that they are loosing money, but in my country piracy has only helped them earn money. It's the only reason some people know they exist and ask they be stoked at libraries, stores and translated by publishers.

[@purplesnowcrafts]

I’m a bisexual stuck in a homophobic household which is DEEP in purity culture as well. I can’t safely buy queer books. Or spicy books. So I used Z Library as a way to safely express myself and give myself hope without outing myself and getting into a dangerous situation. Most of the books I pirated I am planning on buying whenever I move out. But with this economic turmoil I don’t know when or even if that will be. So it sucks that I have to bury that part of me again with Z Lib shutting down.

[@krahvata]

You can still access it. They still have servers, its just that the public domain is shut down. Check r/piracy for a guide 😉

[@purplesnowcrafts]

@@krahvata thanks bestie! 💜

[@loveSIX5]

@@krahvata how can I access it, do you know?

[@ellys106]

I also wish I'd known Z-Library existed. I bought so many expensive textbooks for college and then the teachers often either a. barely used them or b. showed us long slideshows repeating the chapters every week.

[@bhsprinkle]

Didn't know about it either. For textbooks, it would be helpful and it's expensive to get physical textbooks.

[@dana_____]

Reminder that the Internet Archive and the Project Gutenberg exists to anyone looking for public domain books (also you can “borrow” books through Internet Archive for a limited time like a day I think). Edit: forgot open access books and DOAJ. But it might take some looking around in each platform which books are open access (there should be an option to search open access material). In Canada it’s like policy that publicly funded work has to be made open access.

[@bhsprinkle]

Oh, those sound like good resources.

[@ammalyrical5646]

I've used Z-library in the passt to get ebook copies of books that were not available for me to buy and wouldn't be in my library (that also costs like 40-60 EUR per year). Some books are out of print physically and digitally but were still available on there. Now that's gone too.

[@jkpiowa]

Amazon has no incentive to update or change Goodreads. It's by far the largest book reviewing platform, which means it's doing exactly what they want it to do... supply Amazon with your data so they can sell you more books.

[@ellismorten]

I think tradpub authors/people who are anti-piracy should maybe be more mad at the big publishers for making their stories so expensive and inaccessible in so many parts of the world and for crushing all small presses under their thumb so they have complete control of the market and basically guaranteeing the existence of piracy out of necessity, than at people who wouldn’t be buying the book anyway

[@bhsprinkle]

This ... yup

[@dekxu6673]

You don't NEED to read that romance book on your tbr. the publishing process is more expensive than consumers think, and with inflation rates, they start to rise. it sucks, I get it, but it's not an excuse to pirate something. I'm not saying that you're a terrible person if you pirate books, but let's not make excuses for ourselves and admit what we're doing isn't good, and harms the author.

[@fortunamajor7239]

@dekxu life isn't just about need. im fortunate enough to have a very robust library system near me with e materials and everything but a not-insignificant amount of people don't have access to that. like im not gonna tell my cousins in africa that they don't NEED to read for fun bc downloading a pdf of a book is gonna hurt a first world middle class author w a whole team behind them when my cousins are dealing w the government arbitrarily shutting the power off at any time of the day among other things lol. idk where you live but your mindset is v classist and myopic. you probably don't need half of the stuff you own but you have it because life isn't just about survival but pleasure too

[@dekxu6673]

@@fortunamajor7239 pirating harms the author, end of story. phrase it however you want but it is what it is

[@dekxu6673]

@@fortunamajor7239 and don’t throw around the word classist like a basketball lol.

[@a.r.e.j.1693]

Latam here and yes, confirming the issue with Zlib affected the whole world. Thank you for remembering that detail!

[@audiobookworm13]

I live in the middle east and zlibrary is literally the only way I could read books...not just foreign books but ones by arabic authors as well. In my entire city there two bookstores lol and the most recent ones were published in the early 2000s. So yeah I'm kinda pissed about this.

[@burnt-croissants]

try libgen! same as zlibrary

[@SarasBooksAndThings]

For pirating I maintain the boundary if there is an accessible legal way for me to acces the content. Thats what I shall do. If there isn't.... other methods may be used.

[@andiman44]

Right! I try to do things the “proper” way at first but if I can’t find what I’m looking for, I use other channels

[@SarasBooksAndThings]

@@andiman44 Exactly! Because sometimes the proper way doesn't exist. As a manga reader there are some series I love that were never officially translated into English that I've read. People find a way.

[@libellulareading8859]

Regarding the Z-library stuff: IMO all knowledge should be free, to anyone, at anytime, anywhere. I think that's one of the awesome things about KZbin. However, I completely understand and agree that authors need to be paid. So, there's a chasm between these. How do we fix this? I don't know. If you live in a populated area, NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc, I'm sure you have tons of resources and libraries to choose from. And you're exactly right Jess, there is a lot of nuance to this conversation. I wish there was an easy answer. I live in a very rural area (pop. 4,000), and my library is VERY small and underfunded. I check out whatever I can, when I can, but there are unfortunately not a lot of options for the people in my area. Usually 1-2 copies of each book (mostly older books, or SUPER popular books), and most books do not have an audiobook available even on Libby. I absolutely felt guilty using Z-library but I felt like I was at an impasse. I can't afford to purchase every book that my library doesn't have, but I don't just want to *not* read them at all. 😓

[@bluegreen5377]

The thing about z-library is that, I speak at least for myself, I wouldn't buy a lot of books I found there anyway, I only read them because I got them for free. However, I'd say 15% of the books turned out to be so good that I decided to buy them. Without z-lib I wouldn't have bought any of them. A lot of books I read are not even translated into my language so libraries are not an option for me. And I tried getting kindle unlimited for example but it always redirects me to german site and to get ku from that one you have to have a german adress which I don't. I also contemplated getting scribd but apparently it won't work on a kindle so that's not useful either. I use similar platform [to ku and scribd] in my country and buy physical books each month, but buying every book that interests me, in english most of the time, is just not realistic for me at all.

[@brooke5258]

I agree with everything in both posts!

[@thatskums]

Z library was so important to me as a reader and as an English literature student. It was a great resource and the book industry is doing just fine. Why ask for money from people who don't have it? People can't afford to read for fun and people can't afford expensive college books.

[@pig3292]

When one pirating site goes down, there's always a zillion alternatives out there 🏴‍☠️ you can't get rid of it forever

[@Kat.....]

Hope so!

[@doctorsoysauce9731]

Also z-library is still up in its onion domain

[@thatskums]

Yeah there are many alternatives but none as intuitive as z library. It's really easy to find pirated ebooks online but obscure textbooks are another thing

[@m.josena4485]

@@doctorsoysauce9731 onion domain? What’s that (if yoy don’t mind me asking)

[@jacobc3400]

General comment for the non tech savvy. Be wary of your book pirating. There are many sites but, not all are safe. I just don't want an influx of infected pirates due to the death of Zlibrary.

[@aneweliseonlife]

I deleted my GR account in protest a year or so ago. I am really enjoying all the graphs on StoryGraph though, so not missing it at all

[@almostatami]

That woman really stood in front of all those people and cried. Wow.

[@startingace]

I still don’t get it why her ass was so hurt by the book ???

[@serenity8910]

Classic example of white tears.

[@junjunjamore7735]

@@startingace Yeah, she spoke a lot but didn't really say anything, "This is absurd! This book is illegal. I'm not racist. My son has a black friend. I'm not going to be bullied to being quiet. It's absurd!" okay, what about the book?

[@thestoryseekers]

E-BOOKS PRICES ARE UP!! I don’t if anyone will read this but I did notice just this week that a lot of Harper Collins kindle books went up a dollar or two. I was going to buy the next book in a series that I was reading and noticed the price went from $9.99 to $11.99. I know companies sometimes do different tactics to keep money coming in during bad press but I just thought people should know about the price increase. It might not mean much but a dollar here and there on millions of books can bring in a lot of cash flow. It’s like Frito O Lay and them changing the weight on the bag of chips but keeping the same price. I just sent my money to support the union instead and will just wait on the series.

[@lydiawalker0714]

I've used Goodreads since 2012 and this year is the first time they've made updates. And the updates are useless! 🤦🏾‍♀️ Note on the book accessibility conversation: In the US you can check if a larger library in your state or a county over will let you get a state or non-resident card. Depending on where you are, the state or non-resident cards will cost a small fee. E-cards are also free for many libraries.

[@ScorpionFlower95]

I know right? None of the updates are useful 😂😂

[@MJSpice]

Switch over to Storygraph. It's similar to GR and much better. The only problem is that the social media factor which GR is famous for is missing so upto you if that's your thing.

[@Lysis99]

That Update is clear that's marketing who wanted the site to be inclusive and less ugly. That's it.

[@lydiawalker0714]

@@MJSpice I use both. I'm only sticking with Goodreads because I can link my blog reviews there. I honestly don't think Storygraph is much better outside of the half stars and trigger warnings lists.

[@bluegreen5377]

@@lydiawalker0714 Really? Imo they have much better recommendations (goodreads routinely suggests romances or erotica based on middle-grade books I'm reading or read), challenges are amazing (both for being able to participate in other people's and being able to create my own), to request change of information on a book you don't have to look for a forum where you wait for a week to hear back, marking book as owned is right on the book page, there are buddy reads. And it doesn't look like it's been frozen in 2008. I've been using goodreads for years and was sceptical when I made an account on storygraph a couple years ago but I think SG is superior in pretty much every way. The fact that they're listening to users makes them even better.

[@shinumi85]

I heard so many people say that if you can afford an internet connection you can afford books or you can access the library... I live in Argentina, books here are crazy expensive and yet we're not the most book expensive country in South America (Chile is brutal with book prices) we have countless Second hand bookshops (There's literally a main street in the heart of Buenos Aires that is all Theatres and second hand bookstores for 6 or 7 blocks) The town I live doesn't have bookshops and the only libraries are a Children's Library, a Legal Library and the Church's library that has history records and religious books. I pay for Scribd because paying any Kindle service cost more than buying the physical hard cover book for us (dollar tax, books don't pay it, but e-books do) so if I can't get the e-book legally in Scribd, getting the physical book is nearly impossible I got it from Library Z. Books save lives, people who go around saying "I'm glad Library Z got taken down" don't take into account that many people who got their books through the page needed them desperately to study (University here is free, but you can't always find the books you need to study in the University Library) they need the books to desperately hold onto something that is not their actual reality (I have a friend who survived her suicidal thoughts as a teen thanks to reading PIRATED books) Let's not assume everyone's reality

[@Silverraine1]

I want to add that the argument "if you can afford an internet connection you can afford books" doesn't work in 3rd world countries because here the internet is also being pirated, especially because of lockdowns (i.e. 1 person buys it and shares it with whole neighbourhood for cheap and even profits off it a lot) this means anyone can pay under 5$ per month for 2 MB speed and unlimited dls, which is far cheaper than books.

[@shinumi85]

@@Silverraine1 there's also that, some countries have free internet in parks and public spaces (slow as a snail, but hey, it's free) I'd forgotten about the internet sharing.

[@thebackpackingbookwyrm]

I wish we would develop something like a federal digital library, so people would be able to have access regardless of their regional library, and authors would still get paid. Not sure how to solve that problem on an international level though.. it's sad people don't have equitable access to information.

[@idkstuffig8190]

Im not sure if someone in the comments has already explained what happened but basically someone uploaded a tiktok demonstrating the whole process of them downloading two books from zlibrary, from the loading onto the site to looking the book up, downloading it and reading it. Ill try to look for the link but thats more or less the gist of it. The tiktok went viral and well… you’ve already covered the rest in your video 😅. This has been incredibly sad and infuriating. Zlibrary was a great resource for a lot of ppl who just don’t have the access to different texts for a variety of reasons, or even a lot of ppl searching for representation in books that simply didn’t find themselves in a safe enough environment to read them physically. I for one loved zlibrary because I live in Colombia and books are already extremely expensive but additionally, I prefer reading in English (For comfort and diversity primarily) and these books are incredibly rare here and even more expensive. The only way to get them is buying them online, and Amazon would be the cheapest alternative which in and on itself isn’t great but even with it being the cheapest it is incredibly expensive bc well dollars are expensive 😅 and bc of shipping. Anyways the point is that zlibrary since it gave me access to those books and I’m sure this is the case for a lot of ppl too, worldwide. But yeah, I really hope they manage to put it back up bc it was extremely useful (that’s putting it mildly but yk) and a lot of ppl really needed it

[@bhsprinkle]

From your perspective, I completely understand why you're upset. There's a cost and a huge lack of resources to consider. If I ever became famous these are exactly the topics I'd want to help with. Everyone should have access to books and healthcare. Instead, everything is a money grab. Don't get it twisted, id love to be able to survive off my writing but I would also like to keep things a bit more affordable. I understand what it's like to scrape money multiple years in a row in order to get one or two books. It's sad. It's a lot.

[@TatianaOsorio95]

I'm from Colombia too, and I agree with this sentiment, all of it.

[@isabellavalentine7268]

Z library is how I afforded college, and I hate that it took someone being dumb online to take it from us.

[@gracekatharine]

"on Megan Thee Stallion's internet" new favorite phrase

[@jasisreading]

This z library fiasco has taken a darker turn since the individuals in charge of the site are now facing criminal charges. Those who want to continue on this (very privileged) take of "well figure it out: buy or rent from the library" are missing the nuance of people who, truly, do not have those two options available for them.

[@Silverraine1]

people who do not have those options can still go to various book forums and other Russian websites. What is most concerning now should be how many are going to download a dark web browser just to access z-library.

[@VividReads]

When I was a student I took advantage of z-library for my textbooks. Sad to hear that students won’t have that option anymore. It makes education even more classist and unreachable for people from unprivileged backgrounds. 😢

[@hourstooshort1447]

I agree that you need to look at both side, on one side the authors have the right to be mad about zlibrary i mean sometimes the books comes out on zlib the second its officially out on stores but at the same time there are many people and many countries who dont have the means to buy books or even a way find them. I honestly feel like when people can they do support the authors they enjoy reading from + a lot of people actually use zlib for uni textbooks or articles that are way too expensive Also how else are we going to read jk rowling

[@voldy18]

According to a study ordered by the European Commission in 2013 piracy does not hurt the sales of games, books and music. Which makes sense. You may be able to read 10 books a month, but what if you only have the budget for 5? Then no matter whether you pirate the other 5 books or not, you would not have bought them anyway. It goes without saying that IF you have the money and access then yes you should support authors. But as always, accessibility and pricing is what combats piracy. Now that a million streaming services are appearing and people obviously can't afford them all, unsurprisingly piracy is once again on the rise.

[@sugarystrawberrybreeze6976]

The zlibary argument has to be nuanced. I used the site for books I used for the research of my thesis, which would have cost me 35+€ on Amazon. And I have heard that a lot of people download a book to get a taste, and not buy the book physically and then hating it. They then, if they liked the book, buy it in 90% of the cases. I have no library or lot of money available , and this site saved my ass.

[@TheLightofAniu]

The pickets on HarperCollins is great. It is a step. If the publishing house do the best thing, it should end quickly. All power to the editors and workers of HarperCollins on the picket! Also textbooks are a damn scam. They’re so expensive. About £35 a pop. No kind of loan can give that kind of security. Most times you don’t even use the textbooks. I was lucky to get mine second-hand (the Norton Anthology of English Lit 2 vols). It is a burn and a half

[@mglarson5936]

In the US textbooks can be several hundred dollars per book 😞 it’s such a scam

[@mushroomc0re]

I made $80 for a second hand Norton anthology once.

[@TheLightofAniu]

@@mglarson5936 bloody hell!!

[@TheLightofAniu]

@@mushroomc0re oh dear lord

[@haleymist09]

Total scam. They'll update the book every year so you can't get it second hand. My school would make it's own version - kinda because the book was huge and the prof would only use certain parts - but that means we had to buy that version or we'd never know what pages to read. OR it's only available in e-version. They got the college student audience (undergrad/grad) on lock

[@mewmew6158]

I'm so glad Elly is safe now, abuse is so dangerous and so often people don't get away. Trauma is no reason to keep letting yourself harm other people, get help. Thank you for the info, Jess!💙

[@techiescrapper]

This is why I watch a lot of book KZbinrs and B&N recommendations. I use GoodReads to keep track of what I am reading; when I finish books; what I want to read and which books I purchased.

[@ashleyreynolds1991]

this was the ONLY way i was able to read books! stupid freaking Hoover fan!!!!!! i am so sad! man, if i was able to buy the books, i would!!!! if i do end up loving the book i will save up to buy it! man seeing that message when i tried to login on broke my heart!

[@mushroomc0re]

It's the final month of classes. I have two term papers due in december. It's over a hundred dollars per paper for me to get the proper resources.

[@mplbooks]

As an author, the Goodreads ratings showing up on Amazon is awful. We all know GR ratings are always much lower than the Amazon ones on average, and, like, WHY do this?

[@meganabbott7711]

As someone who used zlibrary quite a bit I'd just like to say that I am so glad you presented both sides of the argument here, Jess, as I believe that it is important for people to be able to access information no matter their status (I think their whole thing was that they should be able to run because information should be free) and zlibrary actually had thousands upon thousands of articles which you could search by author or keywords which made resarch for college/university easy I'd like to point out that when I used zlibrary it was to download books that I might have been slightly interested in but would never have bought anyway so technically the authors never 'lost' sales at least from me. Zlibrary was also a great way to get books from authors that you do not want to finacially support (i.e. a lot of people have stopped supporting JKR due to her transphobia).

[@andreakimmel6651]

Well said. I worked in one of the Libraries on campus to help pay my way through college. Those libraies also are required to carry textbooks, usually availible for shorter term loans. That way more people have access. Colleges and libraries in general have both in person, and also digital content. Limited copies can make things complicated, but anyone can walk into those libraries and read those materials. All this is to say that many of us in the US, have more free access to library content then we might otherwise imagine. So if you can, checkout and support your libraries.

[@Ka16Ky28]

What was that lady saying was wrong with "A Place Inside of Me"? And what does the book have to do with her son standing next to a Black child in four pictures? I'm confused.

[@PinkCatsy]

The book talks about stuff that makes her uncomfortable and sad?? I guess she doesn't want her son to know that racism exists so that he can never pick up on her racism loi

[@rachkeats763]

I can see the argument on both sides. Z-Library isn't something I've ever had to (or wanted to) use since I live in an area where I have access to multiple libraries with extensive catalogues, as well as some great bookshops (both 2nd hand and not). I am also aware that not everyone has this, so of course they would need to find alternative ways to get access to the books they want/need. Yes, authors should be paid, but everyone should be able to get access to the books they want to read. I don't know what the solution is, but I can totally understand why people use Z-Library. Hearing how big it is though, I doubt it will be down for long. It will be back...just probably under a different name.

[@nischalprajapati6157]

back when i was in university, the thing everyone did was get a book they needed from the library, photocopy the relevant sections they needed for class or whatever, and return the book to the library. if we needed like an actual textbook for class (not just for a report etc) then we'd just go down to the print shop right outside the university gate and buy the photocopied and tape bound versions.

[@am475]

University text books in my country cost literally half the minimum wage of most provinces. Our universities photocopy original textbooks en masse and stock the libraries that way. Students are also encouraged to pool together their money to photocopy an original copy from the library, because it is literally unaffordable for a majority of people otherwise.

[@spenx09]

I can't be racist, my child put his arm around a black child once 🤡🤡🤡🤡

[@moniqueloomis9772]

🤣

[@cifafs3]

I also wish I had known about this for textbooks 🥴🥴 I rented mine from Chegg instead of buying them but was still hundreds of dollars a semester

[@zionhalder1017]

Try Libgen! I always use Libgen for textbooks, it has more accurate details about authors and different editions.

[@rileyponpon]

Omg literally no one else seems to have even heard of Chegg but it saved me thousands of dollars in books (2010-2015). Back when I also learned they don’t care about high lighting I felt the earth move (always worried they’d charge me for the whole book if I did).

[@cifafs3]

@@zionhalder1017 I graduated years ago but I hope current and future students see this! Those “newest edition” prices are killer and they change like one word 😂

[@cifafs3]

@@rileyponpon saved SO MUCH money

[@margaret_adelle]

I know indie authors have been struggling with books being on sites like Z-library, cuz it can get books removed from KU and cost them a hefty portion of their sales. And in a lot of cases, those same authors would be happy to hand out free eARCs for review.

[@sophilozophy]

I'm searching online for A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart to buy it and thank the woman who wants it banned for bringing it to my attention. Her tears and blubbering don't make one lick of sense. When are people going to learn? When you say, look I'm not against "a certain group" because I have a picture or I'm friends with them, that is a red flag 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

[@dvckduckgoose]

Of course it was a colleen hoover fan that ruined it for everyone else 😪 RIP z-library

[@andeeharry]

A friend of mine Kimi was saying she had a bad day in NYC Central Park the other day. Her kid was playing nearby with some white kid, getting along well until a white Karen (excuse the motion here) stormed over, screamed the place down, seized her own child and told her, ''don't be near people like that. it's nasty'. Then when it caused a scene, the Park Keeper asked Kimi because she is causing a display of erratic behaviour'' and it's upsetting everyone's good time Huh? Even just reading this just hurts. People are so cruel...it so needs to change.

[@alyssab.9994]

Definitely tried to use z library last night. I’m hurt

[@alexlemaire8513]

even when I own a book physically I like to read on my kobo rather than carry an extra weight and looking quotes for school citations is so much easier on a ebook. for not having access to a good library this sucks tbh

[@LifeasMonae]

I almost cried when z-library went down, like broooo I still have one more semester of grad school!!! How am I supposed to make it? I’m not buying these $69 books, I’m sorry

[@caitlyn.m.t9618]

There is no easy answer when it comes to pirating books. On one hand, it does hurt authors. On the other, sometimes it is the only way to access something. If people don't have legal options, or if those options is inaccessible for them, well what else can they do? And saying to not read isn't an answer. (I do also think that at some stage we have to look at publishing and how little they are paying their authors. Most of the big ones had a boon in profit during the pandemic, and we are not seeing any increases in wages for their workers, or for their authors. If they profit from their work, they should pay the author more. Not to say pirating is publishers' fault, but the level of struggle authors face in their careers is ridiculous.) I do not pirate, but I live around the corner from a library, plus my parents have an extensive book collection I borrow from and I am able to purchase my own. I am in a privileged position where acquiring books is not really an issue. But still, I see the removal of Z Library as a loss, because so many have lost access to all different kinds of books, and some of these books are no longer available as well.

[@angryotter9129]

I swear goodreads recently tested some UI updates, but then they disappeared. Did I hallucinate that?

[@erinh7450]

No, they did that. So weird. Just cosmetic stuff, tho'

[@witchymay]

It goes on and off for me still

[@julieannelovesbooks]

I’m a user of z library, I started using it mostly for textbooks and other scientific articles but then I also downloaded books for fun whenever I didn’t have access through services I already pay for. As a student I don’t have money to physically buy every single book I read. I’ve known about this website for a long time though, at least for the past two years. This isn’t a new thing. There’s a whole community over on Reddit. So to say that this is due to one tiktok user is ridiculous and I’ve heard this said a lot. This is just something that happens to pirating sites. And at one point a site just like zlibrary will be up and running again with the same expansive catalogue. If you do some more of your own research within said communities you’ll find ways to access a part of the catalogue. And as you said, this is a devastating development for a lot of people. I think people in English speaking countries like the US, Canada and the UK are really privileged in the sense that these popular books are at least available for a reasonable price. There are so many more countries where it either takes a while for new releases to show up in bookstores and then there are countries that if they eventually show up, they’re exponentially more expensive than they are in the US. (We’re talking 50/60 dollars for a paperback here).

[@ariathefirst6495]

In my country we do not have libraries to get books for free. Sometimes, the books that i want is not available here so I have to source them from outside my country which costs an arm and 2 legs compared to how much it'll be if you live somewhere like the US. Zlib has been very helpful for sure. It's a bit sad they did this.

[@moustik31]

I hope, people are taking notes bec. abusers arent original: they all follow a similar pattern to get away from being held accountable from their choices. It's always the same excuses and the same abuse. So, let's stop giving them undeserved empathy and start standing up for ourselves.

[@KatieColson]

I love that you make these videos.

[@danielleoliver1734]

At least the good reads ratings aren’t skewed by the shipping or conditions the book comes in like Amazon reviews are always full of. It’s rarely a review of the product but the company and shipping

[@RyanLane42]

I’ve seen the GR ratings on Amazon pages already

[@glimmeringblue]

as someone who lives in singapore, with a pretty large national library network, i personally just really prefer to pirate in general because i like to have the text to refer back to. im also a pretty slow reader and might abandon books weeks at a time, and ive racked up a $52 dollar late fee before, so i feel kinda unsafe borrowing library books. other than these types of iffy reasons, i used to download translations of various books into other languages, because although there Are some various languages in the library network, it was so much easier to have the text digitally so i could annotate and such. also, yep, things like books by controversial authors (of course jkr, other types) where there are reasons i moght want to refer back to the text (eg for harry potter, widely translated childrens book and also, a common goal for other language learners is to read harry potter in their target language.) im really disappointed zlibrary was closed down of course, but definitely a nuanced conversation.

[@allgirlreview433]

Thank you for bringing A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart to my attention. Going on my Christmas wish list.

[@isabellavalentine7268]

As a Tennesseean, I ain’t the least but surprised that this happened in TN

[@daniellereading8308]

I left TN last year, The same exact county as the people in the video actually!! Yeah, not surprised at all...

[@maud375]

I've just watched The Daily Show about the midterms in Louisiana. I know now and totally understand why you're not keen on Louisiana. Sending hugs. FYI : My mind is always inthe gutter.

[@klc7275]

I didn’t know about Z Library being taken down. I get most of my books there. That’s really upsetting. I don’t have the money to buy a lot of books and I live in a conservative area, so my library sucks. There are other sites to download books but Z Library had everything. For the record, I also feel bad for authors not getting paid, but it’s not like I’m going to be buying their books now. I literally can’t. And books are way too expensive anyway, so even if I had the money, I wouldn’t spend it on a book I’m not sure I will like.

[@galretelj771]

I lost it when i learned about z-library being taken down. I know pirating isn't great for authors and i get it but I live somewhere where there are zero to none English books to read, especially horror and thrillers which are non existent and i don't have the money to keep buying books even thought i try to as much as possible... my fave hobby is reading, i even have a tattoo dedicated to books and now if i don't buy a book i have to listen to whichever audiobook i can find on yt for free... time to go broke i guess

[@Marie45610]

Goodreads is being run by one very tired hamster. That site crashes every 2-3 hours.

[@J_west30]

Hi! 👋🏼 I’m an indie author, and I have the Goodreads rating displayed on one series, but not my others. I think they’re beta testing and/or slowly rolling it out. Not only that, but the presence of the Goodreads rating at the top of the book’s product page shows, while the Amazon rating does not. (For example, if a book has 4.5 on Amazon, you'd only see the gold stars next to “3.3 Rating on Goodreads, 1001 ratings”, or whatever it has.) Oof. This new feature is not it. I can’t see why they thought it was a good idea for the author or reader communities.

[@alexandrac2472]

The r/piracy subreddit is a good resource on how to find different places for research papers, textbooks, etc. Scihub saved my life in college and I found that place on Reddit.

[@JerodimusPrime]

What was wrong with the poem book A Place Inside of Me? Why did the lady want it banned in the first place?

[@derekdavis5310]

I'm torn about zlibrary. My first reaction is basically more so about the reader - don't take away a resource that has made books so accessible to lots of people. But as an independently published author? I would be livid if someone pirated my book. I don't get a lot of money from this. It's mostly my hobby and the extra money coming from this is basically what I like to call my coffee money. It's nice to have extra money every month so I can have coffee and go to the movies. LIke I said, though, I do understand the frustration and the anger, but as you said, this is a nuanced conversation. This isn't black and white. And it certainly affects both readers and writers alike.

[@bluegreen5377]

I think it's also important to remember that as much as it sucks for authors to hear this, majority of people who would pirate their book, would not buy it otherwise anyway so that adds another shade of gray to the mix.

[@ChrisHarperBooks]

I get that gooreads ratings suck, but like Amazon ratings are also complete garbage. I honestly trust the ones on goodreads more, for whatever value "more" in this case is. At the very least we will now be able to tell easily if there is a radical difference between the two and know to figure out what the hell is going on.

[@SarahEsmaeWolfe]

I didn't even think goodreads had employees because of how it has always been over there 😂

[@brooke5258]

They updated the look of the book page, and said that's enough work for the next 10 years lol.

[@SarahEsmaeWolfe]

@@brooke5258 mine has gone back to the old page, which I like better, but that makes this comment even funnier 😂

[@bluegreen5377]

@@SarahEsmaeWolfe I thought it was just mine that went back to the old version randomly. I remember either one of the employees or volounteers telling people it won't ever go back to the old version [from the new]. Well it did, by itself lol

[@SarahEsmaeWolfe]

@@bluegreen5377 yeah I'm not gonna complain, I hated the new page lol

[@doctorsoysauce9731]

Z is still up in their bot and onion. With the full catalogue available, it's just that the surface Web domain is gone.

[@geezchloe6048]

When the copy website of z library gets created, can y’all please let me know? I used that site for so much research material and now it’s gone😓

[@deadroses278]

I wish I knew about z library because I have an $150 200pg textbook sitting in my closet right now for a course I won’t take again and don’t need the information from. Thanks tiktok 🥰😭

[@WriterSRAustin]

Why do people treat Goodreads as the authority on book reviews? Yuck. A high Goodreads review does not indicate a good book by any means. Like you said, marginalized authors get review bombed. People are shit.

[@burnt-croissants]

i noticed this when buying books for this holiday (a treat for myself) but the website bookdepository (uk based, also owned by amazon, which i just found out recently) also had the goodreads rating next to the book. maybe won’t have as big an impact as the amazon site, but unfortunately it seems like amazon is covering all their bases ugh

[@wisdomteethsoup]

bro I was writing my paper with sources I downloaded from Z-Library that are $170 books with limited access in my school library (the wait list is over 8 people long) I nearly cried when I saw that it was taken down lol

[@mandimal]

This was a great video! I didn’t know about any of this stuff and not only did you inform me but you are hysterical and so entertaining! Loved it, well done!

[@BronwynAlexandriaa]

The reviews on book reads are simply UNRELIABLE.

[@kiluanon]

Informative and thoughtful as always! I just started watching a few months ago and, not being on book tok, this channel is my best line of info. I don't know what part of LA you're in, but if you ever come down to New Orleans it would be fun to meet another book lover, we have some great book shops here. I'll email you my info if you feel like making a new weeziana friend!

[@daniellereading8308]

Heyyy I'm on the coast of Mississippi. Closer to the AL border than the LA border but hey also closer than Los Angeles😂 I would love to have a friend in NOLA❤

[@NicolesBookishNook]

I have the Goodreads rating on only one of my books on Amazon and I literally said out loud (to myself, who else?), "Oh, this isn't going to go over well with authors." It's exactly what you said, no matter if you're traditionally published, self published, part of a small press, or you're hybrid published-Goodreads is not a good place to be 🤣 I had an argument about Amazon being "just as bad" as Goodreads and yes, there's definitely fake review on Amazon, but at least Amazon has a rule that you must spend $50 or more per year to leave a review/rate a product. Does Goodreads have anything close to that? Absolutely not. It's incredibly easy to create massive amounts of fake profiles and 1 or 2 star bomb a book. At this point, I don't look at reviews at all because I know how silly it is, but I'll glance at Amazon reviews.

[@Aquiwer]

I can’t believe this is how I find out that Zlib is down

[@andeeharry]

I have noticed a huge shift lately.....to get anywhere you have to be 'bad'. Yes, they are going with the badboy image at the moment for populairty. I am not selling my soul that's fr sure.

[@KittyxKult]

Thank you for notifying us about the Harper Collins strike. I will not be purchasing any books or requesting any ARCs from them until the strike is over ❤ I hate Goodreads but I’m struggling to move me and my 10,000 books over to StoryGraph bc Goodreads terrible export function

[@cakt1991]

The union has made it clear that they don’t want you to stop purchasing (for now at least) as it hurts authors, and ultimately authors and editors are on the same side on this issue…both are being screwed over by publishers. It would also be a big loss for any marginalized authors who publish through them…they have no control over that. But the union has asked that reviewers withhold reviews until the strike is over. It’s really worth checking out their Twitter for full context on how you can support and what specifically they’re asking specific people to do (or not do).

[@KittyxKult]

@@cakt1991 you can also directly donate to authors you would be buying without buying from the publisher. Since I don't buy new releases, it wouldn't have very much impact or make much a difference if I simply choose to wait to buy until the strike is over other than me personally choosing not to give them money until the strike is up

[@cakt1991]

@@KittyxKult what qualifies as a “new release?” It clearly doesn’t correlate to how advances and “earning out” works, as there are books that take ages to earn out their advances, if they do at all. That’s clearly what people have in mind with how things are structured. If a book doesn’t do well, the publisher can turn around and terminate their contract or not work with that author again. So, if everyone who says they’ll boycott (and I saw a lot of people say this) it’ll impact the authors, whether they get financial support from other avenues or not. The publishers have the money to be paying their staff more , but they’re not…that’s kind of the point. They’ll be fine, regardless of what consumers do. But if consumers presumably aren’t responding well to certain titles? They’ll act fast. I mean, they do it when sales are bad for other reasons in normal circumstances. Why would they make an exception in the absence of likely replaceable (if someone could be convinced to take the work) editorial/marketing staff?

[@KittyxKult]

@@cakt1991 and if the company is terminating authors for a boycott knowing them not making money is not because of the author but because of their company policy, how badly do you want to be giving these people money anyway? Free authors from their crappy contracts where they weren’t paid enough anyway, let the main companies crash from lack of sales. there are still indie publishers. Saying “oh they will just punish authors” and that’s a company you want to give more money???

[@KittyxKult]

@@cakt1991 the issue is that people are convinced to buy from the company when withholding money from them would kick their asses into gear just fine. I’m not the problem for not wanting them to have more of my hard earned money. The people who buy from them anyway are.

[@MargaretPinard]

SHOUT OUT TO the Harper Collins Union!! ❤