Getting Through a Book

“Before Monday, before the 911 call and police investigation, Pedro Ruiz III, an aspiring YouTube star in rural Minnesota, spent considerable time persuading his girlfriend to fire a gun at his chest. There would be a thick encyclopedia between the muzzle and his body, authorities say he told 19-year-old Monalisa Perez. The pages, he reasoned, would stop the bullet.” A story that is both tragic and a metaphor for our era. From WaPo: He thought a book would stop a bullet and make him a YouTube star. Now he’s dead.