Reading Recluse

Steadily reading my way through life.

📘 for fiction
📗 for non-fiction
📙 for poetry

Location: Belgium
Reads in: NL & EN (fluent), FR & JP (learning)
Review blog: https://readingrecluse.bearblog.dev/

Last Notes

2026-02-22 10:34:12 UTC

The LLM discourse on the Fediverse has really irked me the last few days.
Refusing to read writing made with the use of LLMs and refusing to give time to writers who use, promote or justify the use of LLMs is not purity culture, it's a boycott. It's a political act of withdrawing my time, resources and support for something that I find deeply morally wrong. It's protest. I have a choice and I refuse.
LLMs are exploitative, destructive, biased, mediocre parroting machines. Using them has a negative impact on the climate, the arts, the quality of the internet, the job market, the economy, the accessibility of electronics, even on skill development, creativity and mental health. LLMs are made and trained on the unpaid labour of millions -if not billions- of people who didn't consent. Their generic output litter the path to finding anything by true human creators.
Wherever I can, for as long as I can, I reject LLMs and anything that is related to them. I'm boycotting.

2026-01-19 16:00:58 UTC

- reply

You can download Kiwix, launch it, download Wikipedia from within there and it's easier to browse and use.

2026-01-16 08:32:53 UTC

Reminder that you can download Wikipedia (with or without images) and read it offline on your own computer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download
Having a back-up of Wikipedia has always been important, but I think especially now with the looming threat of LLMs.
I've felt very down due to this article I saw today:
https://archive.ph/adOiq
Wikipedia is accepting payments from LLM companies to scrape its content, so it's endangering itself by possibly becoming financially dependent on these horrible companies.
Wikipedia's texts are also volunteer work, did anyone agree to have their work fed to the AI systems? No! "They'll scrape it anyway, at least now they're paying" - no! We have to resist, not accept this behavior in exchange for bribes.
In the article they're also considering working towards implementing AI in the future into the editing process for articles, or for looking for sources, or maybe even an AI search box chat style. I hate these ideas.
As an avid reader I'm on Wikipedia almost daily. Almost every book inspires me to go and learn something new about the world.
I don't want Wikipedia to embrace AI!

2025-05-10 10:12:01 UTC

I found out that author Neil Gaiman is seeking 500k from one of the women who accused him of sexual assault for breaking an NDA about it. It sickens me and I believe he's doing it to frighten other victims from coming forward.
I want to make it clear that I won't read, review or promote any of his works here. The same goes for any author who has, to my knowledge, been outed as an abuser.
I think it's important to show victims and survivors that we're shunning their abuser. That we're not glorifying abusers, attaching ourselves to them or giving weight to their words, no matter how pretty or convincing they used to be.
The world is wide and diverse. There are millions of other artists to enjoy and support.