Reading Week is upon us. What does this mean?
Realistically, it means that time will become uncontrollable: for nine whole days, life won’t be structured by seminars. You may instinctively want to relapse into the read-in-bed-all-day pattern. Let’s be honest, that is not a good pattern: at best, it is repetitive; at worst, it’s nothing but barely disguised sloth.
Oh, rise to the challenge of this week of unstructured time! Look up from the printed page and remember you have a life and a body. Force yourself to be in new places and engage in new activities. Using Reading Week to become aware and alert.
To help you through this confusing time, here is a random, by no means all-inclusive list of things to do in Toronto during Reading Week.
1. Leave your neighbourhood. The city is bigger than you think it is. Learn some facts about Toronto’s history in out-of-the-way museums like the Tollkeeper’s Cottage at Bathurst and Davenport. If you aren’t into local history but like cool stuff, there are exhibitions about cool stuff going on. Like interesting non-toy objects made of vinyl at the Design Exchange.
2. Watching the Olympics is entertaining, but don’t let all this inspiration go to waste. Get some people together for some (choreographed?) skating at Dufferin Grove. Not many of us can gather up the motivation to go do winter sports alone, but once you’ve organized an outing, you have no choice but to go. Tip from Jeanne: Post-skating community dinners are five bucks. Nice.
3. Since you have a ton of work to do, do it in various locations. Come on, at least some of your tasks can be done in the presence of friends, with a hot beverage at hand. Besides, a change of scenery does wonders for productivity. What you need is independent cafes (best explored with an indie coffee passport in hand). I’ve found that the Centre for Social Innovation at Bathurst and Harbord and Cabin Fever near Keele are pretty good for working.
4. Most importantly, do not fall off the face of the earth. Reading week gives us a rare chance to be around each other without the constant stress of hurrying to class. So let’s help each other with conference papers and essay proposals, and make Hegel jokes (if that’s your jam), and share coffee and cupcakes and Aphrodite’s apples.
In short, go explore new horizons and come back to the Centre to tell everyone else all about it.
complit toronto 