Wait. Don’t go look. I want you to guess. Think about it for a minute.

What do you think the most popular download yesterday, Saturday, February 1, 2025, was from Project Gutenberg? If you’re not already aware, Project Gutenberg, founded by Michael Hart, is the largest online source of freely downloadable open domain ebooks. Basically, these books are no longer under a copyright restriction and if you want to read one, you can get it online. You can download it, have it, keep it. The mission of Project Gutenberg is to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks.

So, have you guessed?

Depending on your political outlook, the answer could be chilling. The top most downloaded book yesterday was Simple Sabotage Field Manual by United States Office of Strategic Services cerca 1940s (downloaded 30,784 times), followed at some distance (4539 downloads) by Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. How’s that for taking a barometric reading of our collective thinking? Granted, I don’t have the data that shows where the downloads came from—if they were predominantly within the United States or if they were worldwide. I don’t know if this is a US thing or some kind of worldwide Zeitgeist.

After Frankenstein, the third most downloaded book yesterday was Shen Yin Yu (at 4503 downloads), a work that “explores the universal nature of pain and understanding, encouraging readers to contemplate their own experiences and the connections to the plight of others.” A fitting read, in my opinion, given the current situation.