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I've recently really been trying to educate myself and enrich my mind instead of defaulting to scrolling in my free time - here are some of the specific activities I've been trying/thought of (in addition to just reading in general/going to museums/watching educational videos etc)
reading:
- reading multiple books in the same sub-genre to explore (eg. gothic)
- reading a book and its inspiration (eg. jane eyre + wide sargasso sea)
- reading books in my second language and noting down new words
- read reviews/analysis from literary journals after finishing a book then writing my own review and noting favourite quotes
other:
- listen to album and make notes on each song + explore references (eg. literary references in hozier songs)
- learn how to crochet/edit videos
- read/watch all of an author's/director's work to see how their style and themes developed
- subscribe to jstor daily free newsletter to get an interesting selection of free journal articles
- use archive.vn to access to paywalled newspaper/magazine articles or libby to access magazines through your library
if anyone has any other ideas in this vein i would love to know!
Feb 27, 2025
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go on Pinterest or to an art museum and when you find a piece you like, research the artist. See if there’s docs or interviews on Youtube, look up more of their pieces and Wiki, etc.
Similar concept at the record store!
Mar 9, 2025
Now and again i'll compile a list of my favourite films, actors and directors and i'll go onto youtube and search their names with "criterion closest" after it, and then watch a couple. It really broadens my film knowledge and tastes
Mar 2, 2025
whenever I’m watching television and they make a reference I’m not familiar with, I’ll pause to look it up!!
Feb 28, 2025
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not an avid reader (~3-4 books / year, trying to get that number up) but the things that have really invigorated my reading when it feels like a chore to get started:
- reading books that aren’t challenging to start off. all about love and the will to change by bell hooks were the first books i was able to successfully finish in like, years bc her writing style is very colloquial despite the subject matter being very dense. similarly, finding a fun fantasy book (or other genre fiction) to get back in the practice of turning pages and “wanting to find out what comes next” is gonna be paramount to being able to do that for books that are gonna require a little more give from you down the line (haven’t read a physical book in over six months so personally going to start legends and lattes soon to try and trick my brain into not thinking books are time-consuming and scary)
- audiobooks; for me at least reading requires too much visual processing + “sitting still” time that i can’t multi-task and read, so i have to schedule when i’m gonna try and do it (unlike tv where you can have it on in the background as you do dishes or working from home or something and can look up periodically) - taking a chunk of podcast + music time and replacing it with audiobooks has been a game changer bc i now read at the gym, at the office, and in transit <30 min long bc i have to track what station i’m at or see where i’m going
Mar 28, 2024
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when I was getting back into reading more regularly, I started with novellas and short stories because it felt less overwhelming. even now, if I get out of the groove of reading, I find something short that will motivate me and get me back into reading my main book
another thing Ive done is invested in an e-reader because an issue I had was keeping focus because of a screen time issue and I was able to satisfy that part of my brain itching for my phone but making it more productive lol. not sure if that's something you're experiencing but it was my biggest issue I had to work around at first
the last thing that helps me is setting up the right vibe to read. in the last few months, Ive been reading a lot of Russian literature so I put on my playlist of older russian and soviet music, maybe light a candle, whatever Im feeling, and just let myself get into it. obviously not a necessity but I always like some quiet music in the background while I read
also seeing this ask made me remember I need to read before bed tonight so thanks for that lmao
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I think a lot of us want to be able to read longer material, but our attention spans are fried for various reasons. For me, it was the fatal combo of doing a reading-intensive degree that ate away at my time + social media brainrot + a high level of anxiety that makes me feel generally restless and unfocused. I used to be a huge reader, so I've tried jumping right back into reading long novels multiple times. This hasn't seemed to work in any lasting way. I've had more luck recently with starting small.
Even if you set your goal as: "I want to read something longer than tweets or social media posts," it's progress! Zines, articles, Substack posts, anything just a little bit longer that your brain can latch deeper into will help rebuild your attention. Short story collections and novellas have also been helpful for me, especially if you pick a topic or genre that you're really interested in.
I'm still on some forms of social media, so I haven't gone cold-turkey. But I do feel like incorporating longer-form material again, even mixed in with scrolling, has helped my brain so much already. It's refreshing to hand-select what I want to read and give my attention to, instead of letting an algorithm serve me topics. I didn't realize how much depth I was missing in exchange for the breadth of the internet!
Jan 19, 2025
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Apr 30, 2025
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today someone told me something about myself and they were just so completely off base that i started questioning my tone and facial expressions bc that was in no way the vibe i was going for
a related anti rec: people who meet you once and assume that they know everything about you (which they obviously don’t)
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