Dear Diary,
The prices of books increased again today. It went from $1000 to a whopping $2000! I need to work even harder to get that book for Christmas. All those hours working odd jobs down the drain. It’s absolutely crazy to think that things like that used to only cost $10, or at least that is what my grandmother used to say. She used to talk about the good ol’ times when books were cheap and how she owned 20 books during her youth! 20! It’s absolutely baffling. When she tells me these types of stories, I used to think her dementia had caught up to her. Nowadays, only super mega-rich people get a hold of that many books. You know that one time, my friend Jessica got not one but two books for her 12th birthday! Her father works for the Commission of Academic Regulation, so I’m not surprised if he used his connections with publishing houses to get a discount. But you didn’t hear it from me! The commission scares me and all. I don’t want them suspecting me or anything.
As much as I hated staying at grandma's place, I’m starting to miss grandma’s funny stories. She always talks about how there used to be this search engine called “Google” where you can search up the answers to the most mundane questions! And for free! I was so interested in it that she gave me money to try it out on my birthday. We drove up to the library and stood in line for hours. By the end of the line, there were a bunch of scary men with guns. I wasn’t really surprised. Knowledge crimes have been really prevalent nowadays. A week before my birthday, people gossiped about a man getting trialed over giving out free books. I wonder where he is now. He’s probably in prison or dead. Back to what I was saying, grandma paid around $30 to the scary men with guns as a knowledge fee. They then took us to a room with a computer on the inside. I sat on the squiggle chair and asked “Ging!” (the government-regulated version of Google invented by this random Harvard-guy named John) if they knew why the sky was blue. It was a question that bugged me for ages. It felt like a great opportunity to get my answer through the supposed all-knowing website.
Ging replied, “The Department of Aerial Flight regulates the color of the sky by pumping blue sanitized gas into the air monthly.” Contented with the answer, I got up, and gleefully went out of the room with my grandma and the scary men with guns. Before accompanying me home, grandma bought me ice cream sundaes. She also talked to me about how I shouldn't trust the things I read so easily. That day was one of the best days of my life! But it was also the last time we saw my grandma. A few days later, she got charged with knowledge crimes and was later sentenced to death. She was charged with “spreading propaganda and confusing the minds of the young.”
Anyway! I gotta go. My mother is calling me for dinner and she sounds mad. I’ll update you on the whole book situation soon. I sure hope the prices drop soon.