Alternatives to Amazon
While Amazon is often the default for many, I invite you to consider the following alternatives that align more closely with our course’s commitment to Data Sovereignty and Digital Agency.
Why these alternatives?
To align with our course’s commitment to Data Privacy, I recommend exploring platforms that do not profit from high-volume user surveillance. Amazon’s tracking of reading habits and consumer behavior is a form of digital monitoring we seek to minimize in this learning environment.
By choosing the independent sources below, we prioritize:
- Intellectual Privacy: Ensuring your reading habits aren’t treated as a data-mining asset.
- Ownership: Opting for DRM-free ePubs that you truly “own” and can use across any device.
- Community Integrity: Supporting a decentralized literary economy rather than a centralized monopoly.
1. Ruha Benjamin, Race After Technology
Weeks 1–3
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Physical (Indie): Bookshop.org (
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Digital (ePub): eBooks.com
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Publisher Direct: Polity Books
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Used: Better World Books
2. Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing
Weeks 4–6
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Physical (Indie): Bookshop.org
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Digital (ePub): eBooks.com
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Used: ThriftBooks
Library & Accessibility Options
If purchasing is not an option, I strongly recommend the following free, library-based resources. These allow you to read without contributing to the data-mining ecosystems of major retailers.
- Libby by OverDrive: This is the gold standard for privacy-centric digital borrowing. Download the app, connect your local or university library card, and you can borrow ePub or Audio versions of most of our texts for free.
- University Library: Please check the Howard University library catalog for physical copies and institutional eBook access.
- Project Gutenberg: For older texts like The Odyssey (though not the Wilson translation) and Gilgamesh, you can find free, public-domain versions here in multiple formats.