Uhhh, hey there!

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library They send an age appropriate book once a month if you have a child younger than 5.

Project Gutenberg Lots of free classic books.

Library Genesis A great place to look for and download college/university textbooks for free, as well as other books.

Scihub Endless Free college books. (and peer-reviewed scientific publications that are otherwise hidden behind a paywall)

Khan Academy Free knowledge that you can use to clep out of university courses, or to simply invest your time in a worthwhile topic.

Openlearn UK’s Open University - free courses for all levels of study, samples of university materials, study skills and tie-ins to BBC documentaries. Everything under Creative Commons licence so you can use it as you see fit.

Duolingo The Green Owl of Languages. There are a few hundred that it teaches and the mobile app makes it easy to do anywhere while waiting (!warning! only good for Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Esperanto, and English. with anything else it gets very low-quality and short.).

Codecademy An awesome site to learn how to use some programming languages. Doesn't get into the really advanced stuff, but it's good for a start.

Photopea Completely free Photoshop clone that has all the basic features of Photoshop, using basically the same interface.

Gimp Another free version of Photoshop.

Unsplash Stock of free photos of just about anything, provided by the photographers themselves, to do with what you like.

Futureme You can write letters to yourself (or other people) in the future! You can also make notifications and reminders of a +doctors appointments or anything else important.

Heavens Above You can look up all the satellites flying over your house tonight, including the ISS, Hubble Space Telescope, those pesky Starlink satellites, and whatever else your heart desires, complete with star maps and precise timing. And there is an Android app, but unfortunately no iOS one last I checked. (For iOS you can use “Sputnik!” which is free and tells, when ISS and Hubble passes overhead.)

Night Sky Other astronomy app for iOS. If you hold your phone to the sky the app tells you what you're looking at (or point it at the ground for a view from the other side of the planet). Zoom in with two fingers and tons of deep space stuff is revealed.

Freecycle its literally people giving away stuff they don't need/want any more that they can't/don't care enough to sell.

Nexus Mods Has thousands of video game mods (for 1,509 PC games), made by independent content creators, available to download at no cost.

Archive The Archive aka Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and so much more... For example a lot of DOS games (classics like Prince of Persia, Oregon Trail, DOOM, Monkey island, Rayman, Turtles), directly playable through the browser.

My earlier list

Eternal Pain - The Severed Head of Medusa.   1913.

You think Dark Academia can only exist in fictions and movies? You're welcome for this post then.

Light up your favourite candle, or put on the sound of soft rain or piano music.

Make small notes above the lines of your book, write down your observations in the margins.

Write and rewrite your notes if that's what helps you learn, in a dark loopy handwriting, not caring if it's messy.

Have questions. Question what you're reading and strike up a conversation with your professor about it.

If that doesn't quench your thirst for knowledge, pour over the books in the library or research on your laptop at late night.

Read. Read. Read. Because dark academia is all about gaining knowledge. Read the books on your shelf that you haven't read before.

Search up funny facts or secrets about romantic poets or mythological figures and share them.

Have a group of friends who are interested in discussing literature or debating over ancient theories over a cup of coffee.

Romanticize studying to help you get in the mood, get dressed up and imagine that you're doing research for your secret poetic society.

Change your environment of studying. Take a walk and read your books on a meadow during sunset or write your essays in the cozy corner of your favourite cafe.

Try to read up materials before your professor teaches them and answer all the questions in class, enjoy being a know-it-all.

Record yourself explaining a certain topic that you've studied recently and pretend as if you're teaching someone.

Take book recs from pinterest, tumblr, your friends and professors and write them on the messy palm of your hand.

reading a book while cuddled up in a corner on your bed, coffee on the windowsill and rain hitting your window right next to you

warm drinks in general - coffee, hot chocolate, tea

layering clothing - dress shirt + sweater / vest + coat

in general autumn clothing like sweaters, turtleneck, vests, coats, scarves, etc

walking somewhere while it's raining, smelling the fresh air as the raindrops hits your umbrella and forming puddles on the pavement

school starting back up, and though stressful, you can look forward to learning in your favourite classes

crunchy leaves. That's it.

the perfect weather - rainy, gloomy, not too hot so I'm not melting, not too cold so I'm not freezing, I get to wear coats all day long

cafés hit different when your hands are cold, it's raining outside and you pick up your hot cup of coffee, leaning back in your seat and reading or researching something

late evening study / reading sessions when it's actually dark out and your light sources are a desk lamp or a couple candles, they just feel more like a vibe

actually having time to have a candlelit room because it's finally dark enough out

I'll repeat - coats! wearing coats!

because school's starting up again it's again time for notes that start off neat for the first month (maybe) and then soon get messy again

dark but warm tones everywhere, leaves are turning pretty reds and oranges and yellows and people are more likely to wear browns and blacks and in general darker / muted colours

listening to rain in a candlelit room while listening to classical music, sitting either by your desk or on the ground while you impulsively decide to research some very specific topic and take an unnecessary amount of notes about it

stepping in shallow puddles and on wet pavement, listening to the lil splish sound every step you take

carrying around a warm drink that you bought on your way to school and ir warming up your cold hands

I personally get a lot more motivation to study because the environment is finally Just Right

the howl of the wind as you stay awake reading when you should most definitely be asleep