the quiet list #5 - a library of things to help you pause and think

for my list lovers, a new and improved version

hello quiet readers, welcome to the quiet list, a slightly new and improved version.

i’ve been working on how to make this list even better for you. instead of a couple of lists, i’ve created a little library of ideas and inspiration that i’d like to share with you every season. there are five rooms here for you to explore, hopefully with something you’ll find interesting or want to try out yourself.

so go ahead, stroll over to the bookshelves to find some recommendations and what’s new in my commonplace book, or take a moment for yourself in the writing room and reflect with the provided journal prompts, or learn something new in the research room.

grab some ideas and make time for a bit of quiet.

(also note that this is best experienced on desktop!)

hope you enjoy <3

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the bookshelves

what i’m reading, what’s on the tbr shelf, words i can’t stop thinking about, notes from my commonplace book recently.

• blue sisters by coco mellors is exactly what i’ve needed all year. i’ve read some dostoyevsky, bell hooks, jane austen and the odd thriller here and there, but this book is everything i love about reading and literature. it’s got character depth, a heavy plot and beautiful writing, some of which i just had to note down in my commonplace book. i’m loving being immersed in the lives of these three sisters as they come to terms, in their own way, with losing a sister.

• “then she saw her through the doorway of the bedroom, her hair partially covering her face. she looked like something that had just spilled, like a vase of violets tipped over.” — blue sisters, pg. 112

• “barely perceptively, unnoticed by anyone, they leaned towards each other, like plants for whom the other was the sun.” — blue sisters, pg. 183

• apricate - to bask in the sun

• “taking responsibility does not mean that we deny the reality of institutionalized injustice. for example, racism, sexism, and homophobia all create barriers and concrete incidents of discrimination. simply taking responsibility does not mean that we can prevent discriminatory acts from happening. but we can choose how we respond to acts of injustice.” — all about love, pg. 57

• all about love by bell hooks is a wonderful lesson in love and i’m very much enjoying how in-depth this book is. the book is split into 13 neat chapters and i’m loving going slow with this to really digest what she’s saying. i write a little summary on a sticky note after each chapter to make her words seep deep into my brain. the quote above also perfectly encapsulates something i’ve been thinking about for most of my life. injustices exist but they should not deter us. some of us just have to work harder for what we want.

• phonaesthetics - the study of the beauty and pleasantness associated with the sounds of certain words or parts of words

• soporific - drowsy, tending to induce sleep

• “dearest, i beg of you, sleep properly and go for walks.” — franz kafka

• looking forward to: so thrilled for you by holly bourne, amusing ourselves to death by neil postman , how to do nothing by jenny odell

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the hobby table

some things i’ve been doing to pass the time, some inspiration for you.

• gem painting is the most soothing hobby i’ve picked up recently. if i’ve had a particularly long day or having one of my general off days, sitting with this and a long youtube video on in the background is so calming. the only thing i hate about it though is the amount of plastic waste i end up having. luckily i think the supermarket near me can recycle this type. they also give you way too many extra beads, so i’m going to have to get creative with how i repurpose those.

• i’m also thinking about picking up my crochet needle again because it has been way too long! i’ve always wanted to make a huge patchwork blanket with a ton of pretty squares but i’ve been putting it off as i know i’ll need to watch a tutorial and that requires my full attention. no video or podcast in the background, no second screen, no multi-tasking.

• my friend came over and showed me and my boyfriend a puzzle game called squaredle. it’s gets quite challenging quite quickly (for me anyway) but my boyfriend is now obsessed with it, and i like to swoop in when he’s near the end and find all the words he couldn’t see and feel like a genius.

• baking vegan blueberry muffins! i discovered i had an egg intolerance a few years ago and then last year, a cow’s milk intolerance dropped. it has simply ruined my life. i haven’t eaten a good cake in years, until the other day when i baked some muffins with my boyfriend. they weren’t perfect but i got to feel that cakey texture after so long. i was so over the moon i think i touched god. next up: vegan croissants.

• faefarm on the nintento switch has still captivated me after several weeks so this is really saying something. it’s the cutest little game and i won’t even call it a farming sim because it’s so much more than that. the game keeps unfolding and i keep unlocking new things even after weeks of gameplay; i never want it to end! if you’re looking for a game like stardew valley but you’re a fairy with wings and a magic wand (and you can water your crops with a giant raincloud that follows you???), you’ll adore this.

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the chair by the window

a space to contemplate and think, stay here a while with a notebook, jot down your thoughts.

• do animals think the world around them is as beautiful as we do? do they feel awe? did the herd of deer i saw the other week feel at peace while sitting in the middle of that vast green field, with not another animal in sight except a few birds in the blue sky in the distance?

• i feel so much joy looking up at the sky. how do i describe that feeling that bubbles up inside of me when the sky is a perfect shade of summer blue and the sun is so bright it penetrates the leaves on trees, making them almost transparent. i will never get tired of that view.

• everything is a mirror. we mirror each other, nature mirrors itself. when you drive down tree-lined streets and look up at the sky, it looks like a river in reverse. branches and twigs on trees look like the insides of my lungs and my veins. is this just a biological happenstance or is it more than that. why can’t it be more than that?

• can something be magical and scientific at the same time?

• i wish i could just lean in and believe the world was magic. i wish i could wholeheartedly believe the crystals on my desk are teeming with different energies. i wish i didn’t care that others may see me as unintelligent for believing there may be something up in the stars, that not everything has a neat scientific explanation, but that sometimes it could just be something beyond our understanding.

• does everything really happen for a reason? another thing i wish i could lean into.

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the writing room

the seasons are changing, what’s changing within you?

summer solstice is on saturday. what are you going to do to mark the occasion, to not let moments slip by, to acknowledge the changing state of nature, the changing state of you? grab a pen and make some notes in the writing room.

• what makes you happy during summer? have you been doing those things? why not?

• what are some ways you can experience more joy this summer?

• think of ways you can become slower like nature. summer is long, hot days, lounging in parks and gardens and watching the clouds, if any, float by. are you floating like a cloud in summer or are you emulating a wild animal chasing its next meal? why?

• as the days gradually get shorter after the solstice, what are you preparing to let go of?

• what’s something you used to do in your childhood during summer that you could do this summer to make you happy?

• write a list of words that come to mind when you think of summer (e.g. excited, tired, lonely, hopeful)

• write a list of words describing how you want to feel this summer. (e.g. free, relaxed, joyful, at peace, alive)

• what habits and routines do you want to introduce this season?

• is there something that’s been frequenting your thoughts? a vision? a creative idea? a version of yourself you want to pursue but don’t know how? summer is the perfect time to experiment.

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the research room

expand your mind, read something different, learn something new.

• in the guardian, poet laureate simon armitage invites us to flip the narrative on dwelling and thinks we should actually be doing more of it. “i am asking people to dwell on ideas. maybe that’s a response to this very fast-paced, short concentration span world that we’re living in, the age of social media where everything is just a quick glimpse of something and then you’re on to the next thing.”

• in the new yorker, jia tolentino is struggling with our current climate that is overwhelming with fake images, fake stories and events that seem fake but unfortunately are not. her brain has officially broken. this is why i can’t constantly keep up with the news or always have my phone in my hand. like jia, i’d simply go mad. this is why i prefer a slower, more intentional pace of life now. we must think of our poor brains in all this.

• on substack, stephanie tyler talks about taste as a form of intelligence. i loved this piece so much, particularly the section where she talks of the feed as a mirror: “when anyone can make anything, and everyone is shouting into the void, the question isn’t "what should I make?" but "what should I ignore?”” i’m a big component of being more intentional about your feeds, (and life in general of course) and not settling for what the algorithm shows you but being mindful of input and output. one of my favourite pieces this season.

• on substack, caitlyn discusses the pursuit of aesthetics and beauty, not the perfectionism and shallow kind, the kind that shifts your soul, the kind that reminds you that you’re alive. another one of my favourite pieces this season, this one moved me, especially this part on oscar wilde: “art, he believed, is valuable precisely because it is beyond function. like love, or longing, or the scent of something that makes you ache, its purpose is not to serve, but to stir. to awaken something in the soul that logic cannot reach.” ugh. beautiful.

• on youtube, this video and this video on how short-form content is destroying your ability to regulate emotions and the decline of intelligence. not the most cheery of topics, but i thought they were worth sharing. watching short-form content for hours on end is like eating 12 different flavoured packets of crisps all at once. not only is it all bad for you, but the different flavours are probably going to make you feel a little queasy after a while. this is what your brain feels on tiktok. also, society is championing the wrong opinions, people and ideas. everyone’s an expert but no one wants to listen to experts anyway.

• to end your visit here on a lighter note, here is my own youtube channel where i’ll be posting more hobby and read with me videos soon, so you have a friend to vibe with <3

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thank you for reading, i hope you found some inspo and ideas to ruminate on. if you’d like future access to the quiet list series, as well as full access to every weekly sunday post and the quiet notes from my journal series, become a paid subscriber today.

i’ll see you soon <3