hi! if you’re looking for some ways on how to spend your time and engage with subjects you really love, or learn something new, or just distract yourself with art and literature, i’ve got you!! please share with others if it’s helpful <3
Language
how I study languages on my own
free online language courses
language challenges
Art, Music and Photography
582 met ebooks for free
visit the louvre, vatican museums, and many more virtually
stage shows, operas, musical theatre streams for free
free online art courses
free online design courses
free online music courses
free online photography lessons from nikon (april only!!)
Philosophy, History, Law & Literature
100+ legal sites to download literature
complete works of shakespeare
free online ivy league literature courses
free online ivy league philosophy courses
free online ivy league history courses
6 cute ideas on how to fill your empty notebooks
free online ivy league law courses
Sciences
free online computer science courses
free online chemistry courses
free online medicine courses
free online physics courses
2400 free online MIT courses
via Gridllr.com — browse your Likes!
Amit Elkayam’s photo series “Big Dog in a Big City” documents what life in New York City looks like with a Great Dane. Read the full story here.
Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of essays I like/find interesting/are food for thought; I’ve tried to sort them as much as possible. The starred (*) ones are those I especially love
also quick note: some of these links, especially the ones that are from books/anthologies redirect you to libgen or scihub, and if that doesn’t work for you, do message me; I’d be happy to send them across!
Literature + Writing
Godot Comes to Sarajevo - Susan Sontag
The Strangeness of Grief - V. S. Naipaul*
Memories of V. S. Naipaul - Paul Theroux*
A Rainy Day with Ruskin Bond - Mayank Austen Soofi
How Albert Camus Faced History - Adam Gopnik
Listen, Bro - Jo Livingstone
Rachel Cusk Gut-Renovates the Novel - Judith Thurman
Lost in Translation: What the First Line of “The Stranger” Should Be - Ryan Bloom
The Duke in His Domain - Truman Capote*
The Cult of Donna Tartt: Themes and Strategies in The Secret History - Ana Rita Catalão Guedes
Never Do That to a Book - Anne Fadiman*
Affecting Anger: Ideologies of Community Mobilisation in Early Hindi Novel - Rohan Chauhan*
Why I Write - George Orwell*
Rimbaud and Patti Smith: Style as Social Deviance - Carrie Jaurès Noland*
Art + Photography (+ Aesthetics)
Looking at War - Susan Sontag*
Love, sex, art, and death - Nan Goldin, David Wojnarowicz
Lyons, Szarkowski, and the Perception of Photography - Anne Wilkes Tucker
The Feminist Critique of Art History - Thalia Gouma-Peterson, Patricia Mathews
In Plato’s Cave - Susan Sontag*
On reproduction of art (Chapter 1, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger*
On nudity and women in art (Chapter 3, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger*
Kalighat Paintings - Sharmishtha Chaudhuri
Daydreams and Fragments: On How We Retrieve Images From the Past - Maël Renouard
Arthur Rimbaud: the Aesthetics of Intoxication - Enid Rhodes Peschel
Cities
Tragic Fable of Mumbai Mills - Gyan Prakash
Whose Bandra is it? - Dustin Silgardo*
Timur’s Registan: noblest public square in the world? - Srinath Perur
The first Starbucks coffee shop, Seattle - Colin Marshall*
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai’s iconic railway station - Srinath Perur
From London to Mumbai and Back Again: Gentrification and Public Policy in Comparative Perspective - Andrew Harris
The Limits of “White Town” in Colonial Calcutta - Swati Chattopadhyay
The Metropolis and Mental Life - Georg Simmel
Colonial Policy and the Culture of Immigration: Citing the Social History of Varanasi - Vinod Kumar, Shiv Narayan
A Caribbean Creole Capital: Kingston, Jamaica - Coln G. Clarke (from Colonial Cities by Robert Ross, Gerard J. Telkamp
The Colonial City and the Post-Colonial World - G. A. de Bruijne
The Nowhere City - Amos Elon*
The Vertical Flâneur: Narratorial Tradecraft in the Colonial Metropolis - Paul K. Saint-Amour
Philosophy
The trolley problem problem - James Wilson
A Brief History of Death - Nir Baram
Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical - John Rawls*
Should Marxists be Interested in Exploitation? - John E. Roemer
The Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief - Scott Berinato*
The Pandemic and the Crisis of Faith - Makarand Paranjape
If God Is Dead, Your Time is Everything - James Wood
Giving Up on God - Ronald Inglehart
The Limits of Consensual Decision - Douglas Rae*
The Science of “Muddling Through” - Charles Lindblom*
History
The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine - Maria Dolan
The History of Loneliness - Jill Lepore*
From Tuskegee to Togo: the Problem of Freedom in the Empire of Cotton - Sven Beckert*
Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism - E. P. Thompson*
All By Myself - Martha Bailey*
The Geographical Pivot of History - H. J. Mackinder
The sea/ocean
Rim of Life - Manu Pillai
Exploring the Indian Ocean as a rich archive of history – above and below the water line - Isabel Hofmeyr, Charne Lavery
‘Piracy’, connectivity and seaborne power in the Middle Ages - Nikolas Jaspert (from The Sea in History)*
The Vikings and their age - Nils Blomkvist (from The Sea in History)*
Mercantile Networks, Port Cities, and “Pirate” States - Roxani Eleni Margariti
Phantom Peril in the Arctic - Robert David English, Morgan Grant Gardner*
Assorted ones on India
A departure from history: Kashmiri Pandits, 1990-2001 - Alexander Evans *
Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World - Gyan Prakash
Empire: How Colonial India Made Modern Britain - Aditya Mukherjee
Feminism and Nationalism in India, 1917-1947 - Aparna Basu
The Epic Riddle of Dating Ramayana, Mahabharata - Sunaina Kumar*
Caste and Politics: Identity Over System - Dipankar Gupta
Our worldview is Delhi based*
Sports (you’ll have to excuse the fact that it’s only cricket but what can i say, i’m indian)
‘Massa Day Done:’ Cricket as a Catalyst for West Indian Independence: 1950-1962 - John Newman*
Playing for power? rugby, Afrikaner nationalism and masculinity in South Africa, c.1900–70 - Albert Grundlingh
When Cricket Was a Symbol, Not Just a Sport - Baz Dreisinger
Cricket, caste, community, colonialism: the politics of a great game - Ramachandra Guha*
Cricket and Politics in Colonial India - Ramchandra Guha
MS Dhoni: A quiet radical who did it his way*
Music
Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil - Samuel M. Araújo
Color, Music and Conflict: A Study of Aggression in Trinidad with Reference to the Role of Traditional Music - J. D. Elder
The 1975 - ‘Notes On a Conditional Form’ review - Dan Stubbs*
Life Without Live - Rob Sheffield*
How Britney Spears Changed Pop - Rob Sheffield
Concert for Bangladesh
From “Help!” to “Helping out a Friend”: Imagining South Asia through the Beatles and the Concert for Bangladesh - Samantha Christiansen
Gender
Clothing Behaviour as Non-verbal Resistance - Diana Crane
The Normalisation of Queer Theory - David M. Halperin
Menstruation and the Holocaust - Jo-Ann Owusu*
Women’s Suffrage the Democratic Peace - Allan Dafoe
Pink and Blue: Coloring Inside the Lines of Gender - Catherine Zuckerman*
Women’s health concerns are dismissed more, studied less - Zoanne Clack
Food
How Food-Obsessed Millennials Shape the Future of Food - Rachel A. Becker (as a non-food obsessed somewhat-millennial, this was interesting)
Colonialism’s effect on how and what we eat - Coral Lee
Tracing Europe’s influence on India’s culinary heritage - Ruth Dsouza Prabhu
Chicken Kiev: the world’s most contested ready-meal*
From Russia with mayo: the story of a Soviet super-salad*
The Politics of Pancakes - Taylor Aucoin*
How Doughnuts Fuelled the American Dream*
Pav from the Nau
A Short History of the Vada Pav - Saira Menezes
Fantasy (mostly just harry potter and lord of the rings)
Purebloods and Mudbloods: Race, Species, and Power (from The Politics of Harry Potter)
Azkaban: Discipline, Punishment, and Human Rights (from The Politics of Harry Potter)*
Good and Evil in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lengendarium - Jyrki Korpua
The Fairy Story: J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis - Colin Duriez (from Tree of Tales)*
Tolkien’s Augustinian Understanding of Good and Evil: Why The Lord of the Rings Is Not Manichean - Ralph Wood (from Tree of Tales)*
Travel
The Hidden Cost of Wildlife Tourism
Chronicles of a Writer’s 1950s Road Trip Across France - Kathleen Phelan
On the Early Women Pioneers of Trail Hiking - Gwenyth Loose
On the Mythologies of the Himalaya Mountains - Ed Douglas*
More random assorted ones
The cosmos from the wheelchair (The Economist obituaries)*
In El Salvador - Joan Didion
Scientists are unravelling the mystery of pain - Yudhijit Banerjee
Notes on Nationalism - George Orwell
Politics and the English Language - George Orwell*
What Do the Humanities Do in a Crisis? - Agnes Callard*
The Politics of Joker - Kyle Smith
Sushant Singh Rajput: The outsider - Uday Bhatia*
Credibility and Mystery - John Berger
happy reading :)
Dark Academia Playlist
a little dark, a little whimsical, tunes to make you feel like the main character in a film.
roslyn — bon iver, st. vincent
the secret history — the chamber orchestra of london
les mémoires blessées — dark sanctuary
into dust — mazzy star
clair de lune, l. 32 — claude debussy
show me how — men i trust
eyes on fire — blue foundation
over the moon — the marías
falling asleep with a book on your chest — lullatone
solo — five mile town
tchaikovsky: swan lake — pyotr ilyich tchaikovsky
altogether — slowdive
cigar & a 78 — five mile town
visions of gideon — sufjan stevens
thinking of you — cosmic child
headache — grouper
if i’m asleep — five mile town
dark — daffodils
Lana’s songs that depict the Seven Deadly Sins
Envy
Jealous Girl
Serial Killer
Kinda Outta Luck
Sad Girl
Roses
She’s Not Me
The Other Woman
Gluttony
Lolita
Big Bad Wolf
Betty Boop Boop
Cherry
Summer Wine
Delicious
Young and Beautiful
Greed
National Anthem
Off To The Races
Money Power Glory
Fucked My Way Up To The Top
Other Woman
Go Go Dancer
Hundred Dollar Bill
Lust
Be My Daddy
Hot Hot Hot
Behind Closed Doors
Cola
Paradise
Burning Desire
Push Me Down
Pride
Junky Pride
Delicious
Disco
Summer of Sam
Smarty
You’re Gonna Love Me
Playground
Sloth
Television Heaven
Music To Watch Boys
Boarding School
This Is What Makes Us Girls
Last Girl On Earth
Dark Paradise
Tomorrow Never Came
Wrath
Noir
Is This Happiness
Tired Of Singing The Blues
Ultraviolence
In My Feelings
Your Girl
Honeymoon
unmade playlist
The gluttony ones are literally just ones that mention food
I like reqursts
via Gridllr.com — find your first love!
7/26/2017
during my junior year of high school, I was introduced to a phenomenal learning program called khan academy by a counselor of mine. i’m pretty sure most students have heard of it since it’s been around for ten years, but i’m not convinced about if it’s widely known of how useful khan acdemy is. beyond its surface subjects, you can find lessons for tons of subjects and tests (and it’s free!)
the novelties
math: includes collegiate level mathematics like multivariable calculus, differential equations, & linear algebra
science: cosmology & astronomy includes cosmo & astro and a little bit of environmental science & geology
science: health & medicine is great for an anatomy & physiology class, and the NCLEX-RN is also amazing for an anatomy class- great pair
science: electrical engineering is great for an intro to elec engineering
science: organic chem - speaks for itself
computing: learn how to code, program, and animate
grammar: I’m currently using the grammar section to prep for ACT English. great if you need to brush up on grammar rules!
econ: Macro, micro, & finance!
SAT: obviously can be used for SAT prep, but also for ACT prep! types of questions might be different but it’s great for practice in the ACT Math content areas- pre-algebra, elementary & intermediate algebra, trig, and plane & coordinate geometry
MCAT: I personally believe that the MCAT section on khan academy is a juggernaut- huge amount of resources in this test prep- review of bio, chem, and physics, has psychology & sociology lessons available, i used the MCAT section to understand positive and negative reinforcement and punishment in psych.
there’s also separate sections for AP Physics 1&2, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP US History and info on entrepreneurship! just remember that khan acdemy is not for in depth studying in most subject areas, it’s great for general or supplemental notes! i hope this helps someone! happy studying! :)
10 More Movies that changed my life:
Girls Against Boys-2013
Violet & Daisy-2011
American Mary-2013
Camp X-Ray-2014
Stand By Me-1986
The Innkeepers-2012
Somewhere-2011
Blue Is The Warmest Colour-2013
Amelie-2001
Ida-2013
The Godfather
The Godfather: Part II
Pulp Fiction
Schindler’s List
Goodfellas
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Apocalypse Now
Casablanca
The Shawshank Redemption
Citizen Kane
Taxi Driver
Psycho
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Singin’ in the Rain
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Dark Knight
Chinatown
Metropolis
2001: A Space Odyssey
It’s a Wonderful Life
Raging Bull
North by Northwest
The Silence of the Lambs
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Alien
Toy Story
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Saving Private Ryan
Back to the Future
Pan’s Labyrinth
Annie Hall
Some Like It Hot
The Wizard of Oz
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Wall-E
Aliens
Amadeus
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Das Boot
L.A. Confidential
Cinema Paradiso
Blade Runner
A Clockwork Orange
The Shining
Fargo
Reservoir Dogs
Unforgiven
Memento
Brazil
Solaris
The Lion King
Jaws
Gone with the Wind
The Usual Suspects
There Will Be Blood
The Departed
The Deer Hunter
Do the Right Thing
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
American Beauty
No Country for Old Men
Fight Club
Full Metal Jacket
Inception
Dog Day Afternoon
This Is Spinal Tap
Se7en
Rosemary’s Baby
The French Connection
Die Hard
Finding Nemo
Let the Right One In
Oldboy
The Princess Bride
Mad Max: Fury Road
Young Frankenstein
Blue Velvet
Forrest Gump
The Graduate
Boyhood
The Terminator
Night of the Living Dead
The Matrix
The Right Stuff
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Indiana Jones and the Last
Good Will Hunting
King Kong
Toy Story 2
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Jurassic Park
American History X
The Big Lebowski
The Iron Giant
Halloween
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Stand by Me
Monsters, Inc.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Thing
The Avengers
The Exorcist
Gravity
The Truman Show
Inglourious Basterds
Shaun of the Dead
Her
Platoon
The Dark Knight Rises
Scarface
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Bourne Ultimatum
Being John Malkovich
Million Dollar Baby
Groundhog Day
Argo
Boogie Nights
Aladdin
Almost Famous
Evil Dead II
Mulholland Dr
Batman Begins
Casino Royale
The Prestige
Star Trek
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The Incredibles
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Hot Fuzz
Ghost Busters
Fantasia
Guardians of the Galaxy 2014
Dazed and Confused
Blazing Saddles 1974
The Hurt Locker
The Green Mile
Black Swan
Dirty Harry
Boyz n the Hood
The Sixth Sense
Iron Man
The Fugitive
Casino
A Christmas Story
Drive
The Lego Movie
Mad Max 2
Rain Man
The Birds
The Breakfast Club
Twelve Monkeys
Catch Me If You Can
Edward Scissorhands
True Grit
Glory
The Last Emperor
The Fighter
Suspiria
Little Miss Sunshine
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and 2
True Romance
Battle
JFK
Brokeback Mountain
Silver Linings Playbook
Shrek
Deliverance
Planet of the Apes
M.A.S.H.
A Bronx Tale
The Piano
Juno
Run Lola Run
Doctor Zhivago
Gone Girl
Kramer vs. Kramer
District 9
Malcolm X
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Donnie Darko
The Magnificent Seven
Dead Poets Society
Traffic
West Side Story
Serenity
Moneyball
Say Anything…
American Graffiti
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Braveheart
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The Blues Brothers
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Warriors
Kung Fu Hustle
127 Hours
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Gran Torino
United 93
High Fidelity
The Untouchables
When Harry Met Sally…
Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
The Fly
The Evil Dead
Rocky
Ip Man
Ghost World
Mystic River
Scarface
Nightcrawler
Tangled
Mommy
The Wolf of Wall Street
After Hours
Apollo 13
Orphan
Zero Dark Thirty
Snatch
Prisoners
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Dances with Wolves
The Cell
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
A Beautiful Mind
Clerks
The Last of the Mohicans
Short Cuts
A Fish Called Wanda
American Splendor
Easy Rider
Animal House
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Gone Baby Gone
The Vanishing
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Fruitvale Station
Edge of Tomorrow
Dead Man Walking
Frost/Nixon
The Royal Tenenbaums
Birdman
Looper
Misery
Dangerous Liaisons
The Ten Commandments
Zodiac
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
3:10 to Yuma
Leaving Las Vegas
The Thin Red Line
Boys Don’t Cry
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The Little Mermaid
Wreck-It Ralph
The Purple Rose of Cairo
Straw Dogs
All That Jazz
Tootsie
Superman the Movie
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
The Color Purple
The Bourne Identity
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Superbad
Walk the Line
Carlito’s Way
An American Werewolf in London
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Best in Show
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Empire of the Sun
The Town
RoboCop
V for Vendetta
[Rec]
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
X-Men: First Class
Election
Forbidden Planet
Coraline
Witness
Lincoln
Office Space
Donnie Brasco
Ex Machina
The City of Lost Children
The Help
Star Trek Into Darkness
South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut
Interstellar
Winter’s Bone
Minority Report
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Casshern
Frozen
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Big Fish
Heathers
Scent of a Woman
Spider-Man 2
Big Hero 6
Ordinary People
The Bourne Supremacy
Raising Arizona
Carrie
Cinderella Man
Grindhouse
Awakenings
Avatar
Heavenly Creatures
28 Days Later…
Star Trek: First Contact
Terms of Endearment
Mississippi Burning
Thelma & Louise
Brick
Billy Elliot
Braindead
The Bridges of Madison County
Miracle on 34th Street
The Hunt for Red October
Big
Jackie Brown
Road to Perdition
Zombieland
Leviathan
A Simple Plan
End of Watch
Ray
The English Patient
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Three Kings
Titanic
Cast Away
Gattaca 1997
The Crow
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
As Good as It Gets
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Field of Dreams
The Aviator
A History of Violence
Collateral
Manhunter
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
First Blood
Chicago
Out of Sight
Hoosiers
Mulan
Sin City
X2 : X-Men United
Tombstone
Videodrome
Grosse Pointe Blank
The Last Temptation of Christ
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Inside Man
Lethal Weapon
Swingers
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Bambi
Predator
Ringu
The Jungle Book
Kung Fu Panda
Garden State
The Crying Game
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
21 Grams
Borat
Source Code
The Fisher King
Speed
Drugstore Cowboy
Dark City
Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Experiment
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
Trading Places
National Lampoon’s Vacation
Menace II Society
Gosford Park
Precious
The Taking of Pelham 123
Munich
Re-Animator
A Few Good Men
American Hustle
Moulin Rouge
Black Hawk Down
Dumbo
Dawn of the Dead
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
The Abyss