read more please: why literature is for everybody

[@samstevenson5328]

I LITERALLY have to delete all my social media as well as KZbin in order to stay glued in a good book. It’s far too easy for me to waste time on my phone

[@gillian268]

Vehemently agree with this take, I've been getting back into reading to replace my doomscrolling habit and I already feel so much better mentally. It's like the nourishing feeling of eating that first healthy home-cooked meal after a week straight of fast food

[@CyberCaliber]

yeah. i think there is a wave of shaming people having hobbies if they are not productive or some sort of outcome. the whole point of hobbies is that you enjoy it. That's what hobbies are about.

[@hananberger4372]

Reading is amazing, I've set aside time that I use for ready, and only reading, and even though I'm an incredibly slow ready I was able to finish 18 books over 2024. Atomic habits is a great book for learning to build habits, if there's a book you want to read, just take it out and put it somewhere accessable. There you go, step one done. Okay, the books is available you see it and you want to open it up, great, don't think you need to read the whole thing now. Read a sentence, a paragraph, or a few pages, then just put it down. Come back to it it again later, rinse repeat. You can go from barely finishing one book a year to 18. It's great

[@aleacuna2794]

i've always been a big reading person, i don't think there's ever a moment i'm not reading something, even if it's just a couple pages a day. i think the intimidating thing is precisely that people think they have to do it in this very "classics first" or "only non-fiction" way, which has never made sense to me. the first thing i ever read as a child were pulp on my grandma's magazines and horoscopes. later i started reading encyclopedias about dinosaurs and astronomy and history. then i really got into greek mythology. then i started really enjoying children's books. then i liked children's graphic novels. then i found fanfiction. then i read philosophy. and this entire time i've always loved romance novels. only two years ago i felt comfortable reading non-fiction about topics that interest me beyond plain history. you can start and just keep reading a lot of things that already align with your interest. the habit does kinda build itself like everything else but you need to start. right now i'm reading manga during the day, and 5 or 10 pages of the illiad before i go to sleep. you don't even have to sit an entire evening reading if you don't have the time. and specially when everything is so overstimulating every day (phones but public life as well), having something that can slow your brain a bit and help you breathe is always welcome. i was born to love reading not to judge readers!

[@Musenight]

To anyone who may find it helpful, from a person with ADHD who’s just getting back into reading after not enjoying it for years. That video essay about that one topic that you can’t stop thinking about? Find a book about it. Obsessed with a tv show or movie? Half of them are based on books. Go read it. I can find it really hard to commit to something that seems as daunting as a whole book (despite reading many a John Green novel in a day or two back when I was 13) but I got hyperfixated on Dante’s Divine Comedy after watching Wendigoon’s videos on it and then I found a copy for $10 at a local market. Now I’m actually reading the source and can ramble about it first hand instead of playing a game of telephone in my memory whenever I talk about it to whoever is unfortunate enough to show an iota of interest when I bring it up. Never in a million years did I think I’d be WILLINGLY reading a narrative poem from the Middle Ages let alone ENJOYING it. Y’all got this!!

[@Musenight]

Side note: if the lack of stimulation makes it hard to concentrate, try listening to a game/movie/tv show soundtrack (without words) while you read. My personal pick is Disco Elysium. Fits the vibes and is just enough stimulation to allow me to concentrate on what I’m actually reading rather than getting to the end of a page and realising I didn’t internalise any of it.

[@wesleyleach2793]

Y’all gotta read empire of silence

[@noahmcalister]

I've never heard of it, but I added it to my to-read list

[@rogang4thewin341]

FIRST COMMENT LETS GOOOO!!!! anyway loved the video man, well done. I'm not a big fan of reading but I want to get into writing (I have a few story ideas), that being said I love manga and that being said as well, I'm very picky with what I read. I like stories that aren't necessarily vague but more like unelaborated I guess. Like I don't want to be told someone is sad I want to read their body language in see their actions and try to piece together what they are feeling. I'm a huge darksouls fan and love manga like berserk and chainsawman. I also love small and deep stories like Lookback and goodbye eri. If you can recommend anything that would be awesome dude. Hope you have a splendid night! In fact, I hope both sides of your pillows are cold!

[@noahmcalister]

Yeah, I feel like reading is mandatory for writing. I think Stephen King said something to the extent that you have to recognize good writing in order to write well, and the way you learn to recognize it is by reading a variety of things. Idk how good my recs will be, but I've thought about it the past day or so, and this is what I've got: Hellboy is a great American fantasy comic. It's more serious than the del Toro movies, but both are great imo, so if you're into Dark Souls/Berserk, I'd say go for that Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley (who did Scott Pilgrim) is worth checking out for the smaller, heartfelt slice-of-life vibe. It's not as zany as Scott Pilgrim and he did it before that and I think it sounds like it's up your alley Swamp Thing by Alan Moore might be up your alley. DC published a bunch of mature readers books in the 80s/90s/00s under the Vertigo label, and so I'd recommend a ton of stuff under that, but I'd say check that out I love Dark Souls and if you haven't checked out myths/legends, there's some pretty dope stuff. The Mabinogion is one of my favorite collections, Beowulf is great, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is wonderful. Myths lack a lot of detail, so they might be good for the "fill in the blank" sort of thing that you seem to enjoy, if I'm reading it right I'm reading Dandadan rn, and it's done by a guy who worked as an asst on CSM, so you'd probably enjoy it. Similar humor Blue Period is another manga that I've only read a couple volumes of, but I'm enjoying it as well, and it's a slice of life thing Hopefully you dig something here, these are the best that've popped into my head rn Thanks for the kind words, hope you have a splendid night and a cold pillow too!

[@rogang4thewin341]

@@noahmcalister cheers a lot man! Have an awesome week! (can't believe I got a reply from an absolute baller youtuber :3)

[@asdfasdfasdfsfds]

Thank you so much for making this video! I have set backs for reading that this vid has inspired me to try and figure out away around them again. I'm allergic to the plastic most books use in their covers and I'm also very allergic to dust so I can't read books anymore which is really sad. That's all I use to do was read. I try to read on my phone or computer but I always end up playing games or watching movies/youtube, and it's not anywhere near the same as reading stuff traditionally. I have found great joy in reading manga's thankfully. I plan on reading some screen plays too like 'Inglorious Bastards' and 'Jurassic Park'. Have you read any screenplays? If so what have you liked?

[@noahmcalister]

Oh wow, the plastic thing seems awful. And yeah, I find that sometimes I can do comics/manga on my phone or PC, but not ebooks. So far as screenplays go, I have a little experience. I took a screenwriting course once and so I read a few. 1917 is awesome, though I've never seen the movie, and the screenplay of The Matrix is impossible for me to read without seeing the movie in my head. Definitely recommend I've been meaning to read more plays, bc they're pretty similar and I love Macbeth and Hamlet, but I haven't gotten to that yet. I've been meaning to reread those two. Lmk if you find any dope screenplays, bc they're an art in and of themselves

[@zoedachmann4427]

The last two books I really enjoyed were ottessa moshfeng death in her own hands and Emma donoghues slammerkin. Any and all recommendations are super

[@noahmcalister]

I'm not going to lie, I'm not familiar with either of these novels. But reading their summaries, for whatever reason, reminded me of The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing, which I enjoyed a few years ago Hope this is something enjoyable lol