So, this post is not strictly about literature but also partly. Let me know if it‘s inappropriate to discuss this here but I feel we have a good discussion community here on Pagebound, so I was wondering about your guys‘ opinions. This might be a kinda long so bear with me.

In the last week or so, my Instagram algorithm kind of sent me down a rabbit hole regarding all the problems our world might be facing in coming years due to AI and climate change (including data centers and their impact on water resources, changing weather phenomenons and resulting suffering of a lot of people). It was very much not great for my mental health and I have since decided to go on an Instagram-detox. This has helped, however I still see those topics everywhere, including here on Pagebound (for example the post about AI in non-fiction a little while ago).

I, of course, don‘t want to avoid these topics completely, but just reading about them and then just feeling helpless and hopeless because no one is doing anything, is still not great for me.

So, I was wondering what are your tips and tricks to a) avoid and maybe protest AI (aside from not using it obvi), especially how to avoid AI in the books you pick up like are there any websites that check books and authors for AI-usage? etc. and b) how do you guys deal with the impending doom feeling (if you have it as well?)

So far, I changed all my search engines to duckduckgo and ecosia to get away from Google and the AI use they force on everyone and their dog, I don‘t use AI in my personal life or for uni if I can avoid it and I‘m still avoiding Instagram and other social media, especially the comment sections.

Bonus points for book recommendations dealing with AI, climate change and not just informing about these topics but talking about how to deal with their impact on our world and society!!

I don't know what is up with me this month. I actively want to read, I keep picking up books and then just dropping them. I've dnfed so much this month!! I get 10-20% in and then womppppp my interest completely disappears and I no longer want to read it, even though I really want to read!! I just dnfed my 5th book, FIFTH BOOK YALL, for this month.

So help me pick:

1. The Outsider by Stephen King
2. The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah
3. A book you think will help me

I'm in the mood for something dark and disturbing. Horror, dark romance, etc. I just don't want a fuck ton of spice I want something with plot in it.

If you could wave a magical wand right now and get any unpublished book into your hands right this second what would it be? This could be a planned but as-of-yet unpublished book or one that you wish an author might write! This is obviously not intended to pressure any authors since it is a magical hypothetical.

I'd like Naomi Novik to write an epic fantasy similar to Spinning Silver but loosely based on soviet Russia and centring feminist actors. (if I had a creative writing bone in my body that's the book I would write)