Realizing I'm several months late to the party here (I thought I'd signed up for notifications about new posts but I don't seem to have been getting them and only catch your stuff when I see it come across my Insta feed). But I really feel what you say about reading helping with your mental health. I think the concept of recreation as an active thing is something we as a society have lost--or maybe it's just me, I'm pretty dumb. But it clicked for me when I heard NFL QB Kirk Cousins talking about the whole "Work hard, play hard" mentality, which I'd always assumed was just the motto of douche bags with pickup trucks. But he talked about how, to him, it means he has to have goals he actively pursues in his leisure time, so when it's time to focus on his job he feels recharged and rested.
For me, I've found it doesn't even really matter what that goal is. It can be big and "important" (like redoing the insulation in a room in my house) or small and "silly" (like beating the next boss in Dark Souls), or somewhere in-between (like reading x pages in a book). It just has to be something I'm actively engaging in and not a mindless activity. Mindless activities have their place, but when they become too much of what I do is when I start to burn out.
Just my thoughts responding to this. I really like some of these ideas and should try to incorporate some of them in my own life.
This is a pretty good take. I’ve found that, when I have chunks of time with nothing to do (rare when you’re pushing forty with two kids, but it does occasionally happen), the best question to ask myself isn’t “What do I want to do?” but rather “What will I *not* regret having spent my time on three hours from now?”
BTW, I checked and you’re not currently on my mailing list (unless you used some weird email address I don’t know). You can try signing up again if you want, or I could add you manually if that would be easier. Just let me know.
I genuinely think every aspiring sci-fi/fantasy writer who claims to be unable to find the time to read books (or at least unable to read outside their chosen genre) should be forced, Clockwork Orange style, to read in the quantity you prescribe before requesting beta-reads of their work.
Haha yes. Or at *least* take a second to consider the implications of expecting an audience while refusing to *be* an audience. If reading is such a chore, why do you expect people will be clamoring to buy your nine-part, 10,000-page hard-sci-fi epic?
First Jesse's piece on procrastination and now yours - I feel like the universe is trying to tell me something :D
I used to read a lot and am currently trying to get back into the habit. Your suggestions are really helpful (though I'm still adamant about not getting a Kindle ;) ).
One thing I also did was to block the Youtube app on my phone after 10 pm so I would stop watching videos before going to sleep.
I’m curious—are you anti-ebook, or just anti-Amazon? I was anti-Amazon and read on a Nook for years, but man, the Nook experience is just…not good. Haha
I like paper books because I already spend my workdays staring at screens and because I like to scribble in them and because I just don't get the same sense of ownership when I buy ebooks and because I don't want to have something that publishers can censor or even pull completely as soon as someone on Twitter deems it problematic.
I'm anti-Amazon, but I get why people like the Kindle. My mum has one and she loves it. In Germany, the Tolino e-reader is also quite popular, but I don't know how it compares with the Kindle.
Realizing I'm several months late to the party here (I thought I'd signed up for notifications about new posts but I don't seem to have been getting them and only catch your stuff when I see it come across my Insta feed). But I really feel what you say about reading helping with your mental health. I think the concept of recreation as an active thing is something we as a society have lost--or maybe it's just me, I'm pretty dumb. But it clicked for me when I heard NFL QB Kirk Cousins talking about the whole "Work hard, play hard" mentality, which I'd always assumed was just the motto of douche bags with pickup trucks. But he talked about how, to him, it means he has to have goals he actively pursues in his leisure time, so when it's time to focus on his job he feels recharged and rested.
For me, I've found it doesn't even really matter what that goal is. It can be big and "important" (like redoing the insulation in a room in my house) or small and "silly" (like beating the next boss in Dark Souls), or somewhere in-between (like reading x pages in a book). It just has to be something I'm actively engaging in and not a mindless activity. Mindless activities have their place, but when they become too much of what I do is when I start to burn out.
Just my thoughts responding to this. I really like some of these ideas and should try to incorporate some of them in my own life.
This is a pretty good take. I’ve found that, when I have chunks of time with nothing to do (rare when you’re pushing forty with two kids, but it does occasionally happen), the best question to ask myself isn’t “What do I want to do?” but rather “What will I *not* regret having spent my time on three hours from now?”
BTW, I checked and you’re not currently on my mailing list (unless you used some weird email address I don’t know). You can try signing up again if you want, or I could add you manually if that would be easier. Just let me know.
That is also a very good way to look at it. And I think I figured out the mailing list thing? If I'm not on their now, please do add me.
You’re signed up! Just got the email letting me know.
Ballin'.
I genuinely think every aspiring sci-fi/fantasy writer who claims to be unable to find the time to read books (or at least unable to read outside their chosen genre) should be forced, Clockwork Orange style, to read in the quantity you prescribe before requesting beta-reads of their work.
Haha yes. Or at *least* take a second to consider the implications of expecting an audience while refusing to *be* an audience. If reading is such a chore, why do you expect people will be clamoring to buy your nine-part, 10,000-page hard-sci-fi epic?
Hadestown RULES, and the live show is visually stunning in places.
I love the idea of New Book Day. 🎉
It’s a neat little trick to make yourself look forward to books
First Jesse's piece on procrastination and now yours - I feel like the universe is trying to tell me something :D
I used to read a lot and am currently trying to get back into the habit. Your suggestions are really helpful (though I'm still adamant about not getting a Kindle ;) ).
One thing I also did was to block the Youtube app on my phone after 10 pm so I would stop watching videos before going to sleep.
I’m curious—are you anti-ebook, or just anti-Amazon? I was anti-Amazon and read on a Nook for years, but man, the Nook experience is just…not good. Haha
A little bit of both.
I like paper books because I already spend my workdays staring at screens and because I like to scribble in them and because I just don't get the same sense of ownership when I buy ebooks and because I don't want to have something that publishers can censor or even pull completely as soon as someone on Twitter deems it problematic.
I'm anti-Amazon, but I get why people like the Kindle. My mum has one and she loves it. In Germany, the Tolino e-reader is also quite popular, but I don't know how it compares with the Kindle.