I've recently become worried over how much time I spend online and how terrible it is for my mental health when I'm scrolling through umpteen hot takes about the pandemic. So as I'm on break till the end of the year, I decided to curtail my online time a bit by reading a (short) book a day. I've read 4 books so far and I'm actually really pleased with it! It's a little exhausting and I couldn't keep it up year round, but otoh it's really pleasant to spend the evening reading instead of browsing youtube/Twitter/Reddit/here. I hope I can keep up reading every evening at least, my addiction to my phone/computer is beginning to straight up irritate me lol.
It's so silly, my realisation came from listening to this recent musical, Octet, which is about internet addiction. Went into it thinking it'd be kinda funny, went out of it thinking oh god way too much of this hits too close to home. :') Well, cutting down is a work in progress...
Maybe audiobooks while you're doing something physical? If you wanna get into reading I mean. I mostly audiobook during the periods of my life when I can't concentrate on written books (e.g. during a lot of the pandemic haha...)
This is a v location specific solution, but my library actually has audiobook devices you can borrow along with the book. They also still do CDs, if you have a CD player. Obv the selection is way more limited then, but that's something to look into maybe? Or I guess you could get a super cheap MP3 player and just load pirated audiobooks into that.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata - Japanese book about a woman who rejects society so completely she views herself as an alien from another planet simply observing humans. CW for parental abuse and sexual assault though.
Prosper's Demon by KJ Parker - Fantasy novella about a kind of asshole demon exorcist whose latest job requires him to exorcise the greatest genius in the land (a da Vinci kind of guy)
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol - I have no idea why I have the stereotype that classics are mostly dry and boring, this is a bizarre and hilarious story about a dude conning people in rural 19th century Russia
Piranesi by Suasanna Clarke - Bizarre fantasy book about a person trapped in a mysterious house. It's like a kinder House of Leaves.
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver - Horror story set during an Arctic expedition in the 1930s. The main character is not as rich as the other members of the expedition and it definitely gets to him, which I thought was a cool move on the author's part.
1177BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline - Non-fiction about the Bronze Age collapse
There There by Tommy Orange - Following the intertwining lives of multiple Native American characters, as they are getting ready for a pow-wow. I'm not American and I know really little about Native Americans, especially in modern day, so this was really interesting to read. (Also enjoyed the horror book The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones for the same reason, but that's 310 pages :P)
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss - Set in Northern England, a girl is taken along by her dad to an anthropology course where they try to live like "the ancient Iron Age Britons did". Deals with issues of class, gender, and ofc "who's a real brit". CW for parental abuse.
Hopefully one of these appeals! I'm off to bed, but if you (or anyone else) wants a more specific rec I could try to think of sth tomorrow morning :D I love reccing books to people lmao
Thank you for the reccs! A lot of interesting stuff there. I've got a few short reccs for you:
Generation X - Douglas Coupland - it was written in the early nineties but I was surprised how it still resonates today, for example stuff like climate anxiety, conflict between generations and trying to find meaning in a vapid consumer society.
Satori in Paris - Jack Kerouac - an autobiographical account of the author's trip to Paris. He went there to visit some libraries and research his ancestors but instead got drunk, slept with prostitutes and got mistaken for a beggar while sitting on the street.
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - don't have much to say except that it's a classic
Also check out the podcast Overdue, it's a cool podcast about books, the hosts are great and have decent politics.
I've recently become worried over how much time I spend online and how terrible it is for my mental health when I'm scrolling through umpteen hot takes about the pandemic. So as I'm on break till the end of the year, I decided to curtail my online time a bit by reading a (short) book a day. I've read 4 books so far and I'm actually really pleased with it! It's a little exhausting and I couldn't keep it up year round, but otoh it's really pleasant to spend the evening reading instead of browsing youtube/Twitter/Reddit/here. I hope I can keep up reading every evening at least, my addiction to my phone/computer is beginning to straight up irritate me lol.
This is great , healthy behaviour comrade. Social media under capitalism is toxic as fuck and reading is hella important.
It's so silly, my realisation came from listening to this recent musical, Octet, which is about internet addiction. Went into it thinking it'd be kinda funny, went out of it thinking oh god way too much of this hits too close to home. :') Well, cutting down is a work in progress...
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Maybe audiobooks while you're doing something physical? If you wanna get into reading I mean. I mostly audiobook during the periods of my life when I can't concentrate on written books (e.g. during a lot of the pandemic haha...)
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Oh it's cool you don't have a smartphone!
This is a v location specific solution, but my library actually has audiobook devices you can borrow along with the book. They also still do CDs, if you have a CD player. Obv the selection is way more limited then, but that's something to look into maybe? Or I guess you could get a super cheap MP3 player and just load pirated audiobooks into that.
That sounds great! I'd also like to read more and browse less. Do you have any book recommendations? Short fiction perhaps.
All books under 300 pages:
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata - Japanese book about a woman who rejects society so completely she views herself as an alien from another planet simply observing humans. CW for parental abuse and sexual assault though.
Prosper's Demon by KJ Parker - Fantasy novella about a kind of asshole demon exorcist whose latest job requires him to exorcise the greatest genius in the land (a da Vinci kind of guy)
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol - I have no idea why I have the stereotype that classics are mostly dry and boring, this is a bizarre and hilarious story about a dude conning people in rural 19th century Russia
Piranesi by Suasanna Clarke - Bizarre fantasy book about a person trapped in a mysterious house. It's like a kinder House of Leaves.
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver - Horror story set during an Arctic expedition in the 1930s. The main character is not as rich as the other members of the expedition and it definitely gets to him, which I thought was a cool move on the author's part.
1177BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline - Non-fiction about the Bronze Age collapse
There There by Tommy Orange - Following the intertwining lives of multiple Native American characters, as they are getting ready for a pow-wow. I'm not American and I know really little about Native Americans, especially in modern day, so this was really interesting to read. (Also enjoyed the horror book The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones for the same reason, but that's 310 pages :P)
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss - Set in Northern England, a girl is taken along by her dad to an anthropology course where they try to live like "the ancient Iron Age Britons did". Deals with issues of class, gender, and ofc "who's a real brit". CW for parental abuse.
Hopefully one of these appeals! I'm off to bed, but if you (or anyone else) wants a more specific rec I could try to think of sth tomorrow morning :D I love reccing books to people lmao
Thank you for the reccs! A lot of interesting stuff there. I've got a few short reccs for you:
Generation X - Douglas Coupland - it was written in the early nineties but I was surprised how it still resonates today, for example stuff like climate anxiety, conflict between generations and trying to find meaning in a vapid consumer society.
Satori in Paris - Jack Kerouac - an autobiographical account of the author's trip to Paris. He went there to visit some libraries and research his ancestors but instead got drunk, slept with prostitutes and got mistaken for a beggar while sitting on the street.
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - don't have much to say except that it's a classic
Also check out the podcast Overdue, it's a cool podcast about books, the hosts are great and have decent politics.