What We’re Reading Instead of Doomscrolling

There’s a moment many of us know well.

You open your phone to check one thing.

Just one.

Twenty minutes later, you’re still scrolling—jaw tight, shoulders raised, heart quietly racing—absorbing a steady drip of bad news, hot takes, and things you didn’t ask to care about at 10:42 p.m.

Doomscrolling feels productive. Like staying informed. Like bracing ourselves for what’s next. But most of the time, it leaves us feeling drained, disconnected, and oddly lonelier than when we started.

At Odd Bird Bookshop, we’re not here to shame the scroll. We’ve all been there.
But we are interested in alternatives—especially ones that help us feel a little more grounded, a little more human.

So here’s what we’re reading instead.

When the Scroll Is Anxious → We Reach for Comfort Reads

When the world feels unpredictable, we don’t need high-stakes plot twists or emotional devastation. We need stories that feel safe to land in.

Think:

• Cozy mysteries where the outcome is contained
• Gentle fiction with found families
• Books that move slowly and care about small moments

These are the reads that remind us: not everything has to be urgent to matter.

When the Scroll Is Angry → We Read to Understand

Outrage is sticky. Algorithms love it.
But staying angry all the time is exhausting.

When we feel that tension building, we turn to books that expand perspective instead of narrowing it—thoughtful nonfiction, memoirs, essays, and novels that invite curiosity rather than combat.

Reading won’t solve everything. But it can soften the sharpest edges and remind us that complexity still exists.

When the Scroll Is Numbing → We Choose Something Absorbing

Sometimes the problem isn’t that the news is upsetting—it’s that everything starts to blur together.

That’s when we pick books that pull us fully into another world:

• Lush, atmospheric fiction
• Speculative or magical realism
• Stories with rich settings that demand your attention

These are the books that make you forget to check your phone. The ones that give your nervous system a real break.

When the Scroll Is Lonely → We Read for Connection

For all its constant noise, scrolling can feel isolating.

Reading, on the other hand, is a quiet conversation—between you and an author, between you and a character who somehow gets it.

Books about grief, change, parenthood, identity, and becoming can be deeply comforting. They remind us that whatever season we’re in, someone else has been here too.

We’re Not Anti-Phone. We’re Pro-Choice.

This isn’t about quitting social media or pretending we live off the grid with a lantern and a stack of hardcovers (though that does sound kind of nice).

It’s about choosing, when we can, to trade a few minutes of scrolling for a few pages of something that gives more than it takes.

Reading won’t fix the world.
But it can steady us inside it.

And sometimes, that’s exactly what we need.

If you’re looking for a book that fits your scroll mood, we’re always happy to help.
Stop by, send us a message, or browse our curated collections online—each one chosen with care, intention, and real life in mind.

💛
Odd Bird Bookshop