#(but you can buy some not banned yet in bookstores lol before government catches up and ban them too)

[tenok]

I may not get something because of country differences but keeping libraries alive, keeping authors fed and keeping copies of books, preferably in paper, are all different things. I am one of the people that bought tons of queer books in my country before and after bans started. Banned books are *banned* from libraries and bookstores! You can't "defend that book because it's popular" from under ban! That's a ban!! Libraries would be forced to destroy it! And yes I have a lot of books pirated because even if I like to buy books *there's no safe and legal* ways to buy some of them! And I prefer to be ready in case of another author become enemy of the state. I'll still buy their books while I can but I'll feel safer having a pirated copy in case of this book becoming literally extinct!

But you know what you can do? You can build your own library. You can connect with other people close to you. You can check what books they have. You can make lists together and put lists online in your community (be careful of course, it's already unsafe in our country to just have some books at home). And you can make your own grassroot library and literary give other people books in rotation. It's especially important for people from states with most evil laws. There's a lot of space between "libraries can't have this book anymore" and "keeping this book at home is a punishable offense" and you can share things with each other in this space (I'm telling this to you as a someone who becomes to-go person for borrowing banned books in last couple years).

I'm already seeing advice from people in the US to purchase queer books and other banned or "controversial" books on paper as a way to combat the wave of government censorship that is coming. While this is a good idea (it is! absolutely!), it's not accessible to everyone, and truly, we're not going to be able to consumerism our way out of this one.

If you can buy the books, do. Whether you can buy the books or not, borrow them from your library.

Borrow the paper versions. Borrow the ebook or audiobook versions. Request the titles you want that your library doesn't have. The more a title circulates or is requested, the better librarians are going to be able to defend keeping it if and when it's ever challenged.

Use libraries like @queerliblib too. The more members they have, the better they'll be able to fundraise.

Your community resources depend on you using them. Borrow the books before they go away.

InB4: Piracy is not the solution here. We're trying to keep community resources available, not make sure individual people can read individual books. Different problems.

The books are still available. Borrowing them from your library and returning them on time and in good condition will help keep them that way.