Learning plenty about the lore is a fun way to expand upon what you're doing and have some form of understanding to what the hell is going on, because, without knowing a lot, Dark Souls often just seems to be wandering about and killing some massive creatures for some reason. To know whom/what you have just killed makes it seem more impressive of a situation.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWLedd0Zw3c5RCXboUsPwHsZJlXB2CzCz <- A playlist of Dark Souls lore videos, each episode usually encompassing one character (Solaire, Tarkus, Lautrec, The Sisters of Chaos), and most of them range from 4 to 7 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWLedd0Zw3c5RCXboUsPwHsZJlXB2CzCz <- A playlist of Dark Souls lore videos, each episode usually encompassing one character (Solaire, Tarkus, Lautrec, The Sisters of Chaos), and most of them range from 4 to 7 minutes.