I dunno. I've just finished reading through Actually (the last collection of essays and reviews) by Christopher Hitchens, and it's inspiring me to go out and read some of this stuff he's going on about. The one I'm on right now is Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West, the 2007 Penguin edition with a lengthy intro by Hitchens. The book is a doorstop-sized travelogue of Yugoslavia in the 1930s, a subject I have little interest in; I'm bothering only because a literature fan like Hitchens raved about it. And so far it's page-turningly good. So yeah, attempting to level up in books and media - to improve one's mind by becoming more highly literate - could indeed count as a project (personal improvement), I think.

That said, I agree that MMORPGs are pushing it just a bit.