Reading books
I was quite frustrated with books. The problem was that I used books to give me something I already wanted to read. But I no longer think that's what I personally want from literature.
That became especially true with fantasy. I found myself looking for comfort and familiarity rather than discovery. Eventually, I ended up reading cozy fantasy because I just wanted to be entertained in a pleasant way. After a while, it started to feel empty and repetitive. Some of those books were genuinely bad.
So I returned to the classics and began rereading them, even books I had already read more than once. Some of them are exhausting and not always enjoyable to read, but they show me something. They give me a new perspective, a new way of seeing the world.
What I've realized is that the real difference has little to do with classics versus fantasy. It's about the reason I read. For a long time, I was looking for books that would give me more of what I already knew I liked. Now I'm looking for books that show me something I heaven't seen yet.
I no longer read to find confirmation. I read to discover.