What hobby was easier to get into than you thought?
My two are:
Making sourdough. I personally always heard like this weird almost mysticism around making it. But I bought a $7 starter from a bakery store, and using just stuff in my kitchen and cheap bread flour I've been eating fresh sourdough every day and been super happy with it. Some loafs aren't super consistent because I don't have like temperature controlled box or anything. But they've all been tasty.
Drawing. I'm by no means an artist, but I always felt like people who were good at drawing were like on a different level. But I buckled down and every day for a month I tried drawing my favorite anime character following an online guide. So just 30 minutes every day. The first one was so bad I almost gave up, but I was in love with the last one and made me realize that like... yeah it really is just practice. Years and years of it to be good at drawing things consistently, quickly, and a variety of things. But I had fun and got something I enjoyed much faster than I expected. So if you want to learn to draw, I would recommend just trying to draw something you really like following a guide and just try it once a day until you are happy with the result.
libby is such a game changer. i totally get why a lot of people want to only read physical books but for me, being able to read anywhere at any time instead of having to make a concious decision to find and bring a book with you means i read way way more than i used to
For me it’s that I have to think less about my choices. I don’t have a ton of time anymore so if I pick a book I am not vibing with I can just return it and pick another in a matter of seconds. It’s led me to taking chances on books I normally wouldn’t read.
I like physical books in a theoretical sense. Some hardcovers are beautiful and it's hard to resist the urge to collect them.
But I don't really like reading physical books. I really don't like the typesetting of 70-80 characters on a page. That leaves a lot of my books at maybe 2-3 paragraphs per page, and it's really hard to get into a flow that way. On an ereader I can control the layout, the font, and really get into a book.
(And that's on top of the fact that I can carry thousands of books around with me, borrow from the library, and take notes more effectively for nonfiction.)
That's roboto size 13 on a boox go color 7, on moon+ reader.
macro
And a macro shot of the text to show that the apparent sloppiness is really just the picture. But other apps without the smoothing don't always look the same. I've used different variations of the font on different apps to get the best result.
I use roboto. I especially like how Moon+ reader renders it with antialiasing. Font size depends on the screen and reading distance, but the end result is generally 50-100% more per page. I don't feel like I'm spending all my time turning pages that way.
I still use PDFs for stuff with graphics, diagrams, code, etc. I don't think epub maintains the formatting well enough. But if a book is mostly prose, I find the ability to reflow the text helps me a lot.
I'm a slow reader and get frustrated with how long books take. My "internal" reading speed is about as fast as reading aloud, so anything longer than a few hundred pages takes forever.
Audiobooks are not a replacement for actual reading. It’s still nice to have, but your brain fires off different synapses. They are nice to have in the car.
Don't be such a book snob. I was answering to a person who has a hard time reading. Between making life harder on yourself, not reading or listening to audiobooks, the latter are a good alternative.
Read how you personally want (as do I), but don't judge others for their reading or not reading habits.
Im the same with reading speed. You could try finding a block of time you would otherwise just be on your phone so it feels less an jnvestment (e.g. before bed, riding the bus, or break at work). I use e-books so i don't have to remember it and opening the book is as easy as social media. Finding something you WANT to read is hard too.
If you're into fantasy then branron sanderson is great. The Way of Kings grabbed me after getiing past the prologue (bonus points for women written decently). Alternatively Name of The Wind by patrick rothfuss. If only he'd finish the trilogy...