Seasonal reading

Though it wasn’t the first time I tried themed TBRs (guilty!), it finally struck the right note with me this fall and this November especially. And fall is undeniably the best season for readers (and movie lovers, too); think end-of-summer farewell to dark academia to detective aesthetics and more. As my plan suggested, I started off with Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and for the remainder of the season I was obsessed with reading all things gothic, even though I now always get the “don’t-get-me-started” look on my face when I hear the name of that book. Then, last and this month, I had Bram Stoker's Dracula and Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera (still 70% more to go) – and these felt spot on story-, mood-, and aesthetics-wise. 

This time, I really enjoyed tailoring my reading to the season. A couple of things I’d recommend, though, is preparing your themed list beforehand and being realistic about how many books you can actually fit into your schedule so that you don’t overwhelm yourself and also stay flexible if one day you have a yearning to learn, say, what dinosaurs actually sounded and stray from your TBR. – Marina

Geological museum

St. Petersburg’s museums never fail to amaze me. After ten years in the city, I’ve seen only a tiny bit of them. This November was enlightened by another exciting discovery: a visit to the Geological Museum. I’m not particularly fond of rocks, but the opportunity to see a real dinosaur’s skeleton won me over. As a result, my friend and I spent almost three hours gazing at rocks and minerals – the very ones I wasn’t interested in initially. 

Some of them were so colorful and peculiar in pattern, we could approach them with nothing but the “Wow, that’s beautiful” remark. Sometimes we skipped descriptions (guilty) and simply enjoyed nature's work of art. Others were fossils so old it was hard to imagine you look at a million years of history, and the dinosaur was the cherry on top. On our way back, we stumbled upon a geologist's lab, where he kindly gave us a brief lecture on fossil evolution. So if you feel like igniting an adventurous spirit, this is the place to go. – Elizaveta

One input – one output

Recently, I’ve discovered the concept of one in-one out in terms of consuming information. You read an article – you write some notes with the key ideas, you listen to a podcast – you jot down the main takeaways. And only after you’re done with the “one out” do you proceed to the next “one in.” 

This might feel like a very restrictive approach, but so far I feel liberated instead of bound. I can only consume so much in a day, no matter what the internet is trying to make me believe, and it’s calming to know that I choose these things thoughtfully and then try and engage with them in a meaningful way. I am still working my way around this practice, so I haven’t decided on my approach to fiction, but at the moment I am inspired by the idea of writing a short essay after each book I finish. We’ll see how it goes! – Catherine

Film photography alternative

Nothing can totally replace film photography for me. The act of pressing a real, rather than a touchscreen, button, the anticipation before you finally see the results… It’s super fun, but also pretty expensive and sometimes risky: you never know if you took the right shot before developing.

So, after some hesitation, I finally gave in to a much less exciting, but more practical option – using film filters on my phone. You get to try a bunch of different camera effects and even use photo tricks like double exposure. To be honest, I wish all pictures looked like they were taken with a film camera right away. But as smartphone manufacturers aren’t likely to come up with this feature, photo editing apps with film filters remain a great alternative. – Kseniia