on reading-adjacent hobbies

what counts as bookish but not strictly books?

Imagine for a minute a world where you could read books, but no adjacent hobbies existed. There’s no libraries or bookstores to browse. There’s no social media or in-person book clubs where you can talk about what you read. No spreadsheets or goodreads or any other way of tracking your bookish stats. It’s just you, your book, and a completely isolated, solitary journey.

Did that make you cringe? It makes me want to curl up and stop reading entirely, because it’s taking a good 80% of the joy of reading out of my life.

So I’ve been thinking about this over the past few months for literally no reason, but tell me if you agree with me - there’s lots of other bookish hobbies that aren’t specifically reading itself. I think I’ve kind of wrangled them into 4 different categories (including reading itself):

1. Reading

Okay, let's be real and cover the most obvious option first - reading isn't just flipping pages. It's like going on your own personal adventure every time you crack open a book. Maybe you're the type who zooms through an entire novel in one night because it’s just one more chapter and you can’t stop now (we've all been there), or maybe you like to take your sweet time and really soak in every word. Either way, the reading experience itself is obviously at the core of everything you do as a reader. And there’s a huge amount of joy and fun that comes out of that even without every other hobby, obviously, or we wouldn’t like doing it so much.

2. Collecting

Collecting books is way more than just swiping a card. It's that butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling when you spot an amazing find hiding on a Little Free Library shelf, or that "OMG YES!" moment when you finally grab that book you've been dying to read from a Barnes & Noble. Every single book on your shelf has its own little adventure story of how it made its way into your hands.

3. Curating

This is the super fun organization side of being a book nerd! You know how satisfying it is to take all those random piles of books and turn them into something that actually makes sense? Whether you're color-coding your shelves (or alphabetizing), obsessively updating your Goodreads (guilty), or going full spreadsheet mode to track literally everything about your reading life - it's addicting. And there's just something so mentally satisfying about having your book collection all neat and tidy, both in actuality and online.

4. Marinating

This might be my favorite aspect of “modern” reading culture. It's where we transform the traditionally solitary act of reading into a communal experience. Through book clubs, social media, fan communities, and content creation, we extend our reading experience far beyond the last page. We analyze, theorize, create, and connect with others who share our passion. People much more talented than me create fan art, write fanfic, create beautiful edits and graphics, write and post reviews, and do all kinds of things that greatly enhance every reader’s experience. It’s the reason I would never be able to walk away from the bookstagram or booktube community that I’ve had so much fun being a part of.

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What makes these four dimensions so intriguing is how they interact and enhance each other. Your marinating might influence your collecting, your curating could guide your reading choices, and your reading naturally feeds back into your desire to marinate in the bookish community. And, whether you're more drawn to one aspect or love them all equally, there's no wrong way to be a book person.

So, what do we think of these?? How would you rank your bookish hobbies? I think mine would be Curating > Marinating > Collecting > Reading. I still love reading, I just think that I might love the other adjacent hobbies more.

What do we think I missed? I’m not sure whether borrowing books from libraries would fall under collecting or curating, so that’s one hang up I have. Clearly I’m still stewing on this.

Thanks for reading and letting me have a good old time just spewing my uncollected thoughts at you!

Cheers,

Hannah