I’m currently working on an afghan for our queen bed. It’s mostly finished – it’s 5x5 feet right now so big enough to use – but I’m working on cranking out the border. That’s going to be 24 12x12" squares that will be sewn round the edges for a final size of 7x7 feet! Wish me luck haha.

I love all of those things! Whenever I hit up a thrift store, the media section is my first stop. I’ve gotten so many great CDs and movies for next to nothing that way.

The Rest is History (history podcast with both mini-series… serieses… series… and one-off episodes)

Clear Eyes Full Hearts (Friday Night Lights rewatch)

The Line (Canadian politics – there are a number of podcasts with this or a similar name, so you’re looking for the one by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney)

Stories Podcast (short stories for children; my kids like this a lot for road trips)

Old Books with Grace (old/very old book talk with a medievalist)

You’re Dead to Me is a great one. I also really like The Rest is History in a similar niche.

I started consciously trying to read more old books in the last year or two and I’ve discovered that I love adventure stories! Jules Verne, Sir Walter Scott’s Waverly novels… Winston Churchill’s “My Early Life” is nonfiction that might as well be an adventure story, haha.

For humour it’s hard to go wrong with P G Wodehouse; he wrote much more than just the Jeeves stories.

Recently I read through all of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s collected short stories (the author of Anne of Green Gables among many others).

Dracula was a great read and genuinely spooky, ditto Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw.

Sometimes I go to Project Gutenberg, hit “random” and download anything that catches my eye :)

Great job! Your first real project is a huge accomplishment :D

Can I suggest an alternate as you work up to this? The Klaziena Shawl is a free, beautiful pattern that looks far more complex than it actually is: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/klaziena-shawl

There are really only three stitches to worry about (chain, single crochet, double crochet), the pattern is extremely clear, and it has both written instructions and a chart. This could give you great practice reading charts as well as with general shawl construction. (I’ve made it four or five times now!)