Latest / Silver FM 100.6 / Used to be an avid reader? How to get back into books

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Used to be an avid reader? How to get back into books · Silver FM 100.6

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Life Kit.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: From NPR.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, it's Mary L. I have this daydream where I
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: go to the park and read under a tree. The
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  Speaker 1: sun is shining, the temperature is not too hot, but
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  Speaker 1: not chili either. The ground beneath me is comfortable. I
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  Speaker 1: have snacks on hand, I'm hydrated, and I am captivated
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  Speaker 1: by the book in front of me. It doesn't usually
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  Speaker 1: pan out like this in reality. Two minutes in, I'm sweating,
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  Speaker 1: my butt hurts from sitting on tree roots. I realize
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  Speaker 1: I forgot the snacks and I can't focus, so I
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  Speaker 1: close the book, go home, turn on the TV. A
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  Speaker 1: lot of us make this mistake when it comes to reading.
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  Speaker 1: We think it should feel romantic, like this landmark event
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  Speaker 1: in our day. You know.
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  Speaker 3: We have this imagination that, like, oh, reading time is
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  Speaker 3: like this luxurious thing. I'm in my armchair sipping scotch.
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Wynn is the author of the novels My Documents
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  Speaker 1: and New Waves, and in twenty seventeen he wrote an
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  Speaker 1: article for GQ called how to read a whole damn
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  Speaker 1: book every week.
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  Speaker 3: You have to make it a more regular habit than that,
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  Speaker 3: because if you just wait for all those times then
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  Speaker 3: when you're drinking scotch, hopefully you don't drink that much scotch.
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  Speaker 3: Hope you read more than you drink scotch. Yeah, if
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  Speaker 3: you wait for all those moments, you're never going to
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  Speaker 3: finish a book.
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  Speaker 1: Whether you're reading day dreams involve you at the park,
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  Speaker 1: in an armchair, at a lakeside retreat, or on the beach.
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  Speaker 1: What if you let those go and allowed yourself to
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  Speaker 1: read whenever, wherever, because you don't want to miss out.
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  Speaker 1: Reading is a joy. Maryann Wolfe is a cognitive neuroscientist
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  Speaker 1: at UCLA. An author a reader come home the reading
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  Speaker 1: brain in a digital world.
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  Speaker 2: An author gives us a chance to leap into the
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  Speaker 2: lives and thoughts and feelings of others, a chance to
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  Speaker 2: leap into thoughts that we've never had before, and the
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  Speaker 2: chance to even appreciate that in the midst of solitude,
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  Speaker 2: we are not alone.
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  Speaker 1: On this episode of Life Kit, we have four tips
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  Speaker 1: to help you read more this summer, and Marian says,
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  Speaker 1: if you've fallen off the wagon, you can get back on.
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  Speaker 2: I'm telling you that will happen, but you have to
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  Speaker 2: relearn those muscles.
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  Speaker 1: It just takes time. That's coming up after the break,
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  Speaker 1: picking up where we left off. Our takeaway one is
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  Speaker 1: read when you can, wherever you are.
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  Speaker 3: The hardest part about reading a book is just like
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  Speaker 3: opening the book.
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Wynn says, instead of waiting for that perfect, distraction
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  Speaker 1: free cinematic moment, look for smaller chances throughout the day.
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  Speaker 1: Standing on the train platform, there's a few minutes to
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  Speaker 1: read in a long line for lunch. You can get
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  Speaker 1: a few pages in read when you're early to school pickup,
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  Speaker 1: or when you're waiting for your clothes to be done
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  Speaker 1: at the laundromat. And if you commute to work, well
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  Speaker 1: that's a gimme.
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  Speaker 3: Driving to work, it's audiobook. Time. You get on the subway,
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  Speaker 3: it's time to open the book. I'm not going to
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  Speaker 3: play video games on my phone or listen to podcasts.
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  Speaker 3: It's really easy to have that kind of discipline because
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  Speaker 3: it's sort of like a sequestered part of your day
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  Speaker 3: where you decide, I'm doing this thing at this time now.
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  Speaker 1: To set yourself up for success here, you need to
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  Speaker 1: have books within reach.
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  Speaker 4: I have an upstairs book and a downstairs book, and
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  Speaker 4: a car book, and a bathroom book and a bathtub book.
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  Speaker 1: Jannita Giles is the executive director of the Virginia Children's
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  Speaker 1: Book Festival.
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  Speaker 4: I have books everywhere, put them all over the place,
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  Speaker 4: and always have one with you, and pretty soon you'll
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  Speaker 4: pick one up and you'll start reading, and then there
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  Speaker 4: you go.
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  Speaker 1: Now you might be thinking, how can my ear reader
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  Speaker 1: or my tablet be in five places at once. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to need good old fashioned paper and ink
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  Speaker 1: books for this, and you don't have to buy them
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  Speaker 1: all Your local library will be happy to supply. In general,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of folks will download books to their laptops
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  Speaker 1: or their phones or tablets and read there, but Marian
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  Speaker 1: says that is tricky to do.
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  Speaker 2: Distractions are into wrinsically built in to our laptops and
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  Speaker 2: our phones.
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  Speaker 5: We really have our.
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  Speaker 2: Attention pulled away. We are awash in distraction.
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  Speaker 1: When you read on a device like your phone, you're
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  Speaker 1: just one moment away from a text, an email, a
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  Speaker 1: Slack message, a news alert, And even if you turn
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  Speaker 1: those off, you might still go looking for other entertainment
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  Speaker 1: on your browser or on Instagram, just out of habit.
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  Speaker 1: You may also default to your typical screen behaviors, which
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  Speaker 1: for a lot of us include skimming, for information.
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  Speaker 2: You're going to skim no matter what, because that's what
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  Speaker 2: we do. We want to get to the bottom, and
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  Speaker 2: we want to scroll. We want to get to the next,
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  Speaker 2: the next, the next.
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  Speaker 1: Now, skimming can be helpful when you're reading emails or
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  Speaker 1: when you're trying to stay on top of the news, but.
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  Speaker 2: The reality is that skimming is one of the greatest
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  Speaker 2: disruptions of deep reading.
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  Speaker 1: And Marianne says deep reading can be a beautiful way
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  Speaker 1: to slow down.
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  Speaker 6: At the heart of it is the point where we
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  Speaker 6: the reader go beyond the wisdom of the author to
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  Speaker 6: discover our own.
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  Speaker 1: Sounds pretty great, huh to get there. Take away too,
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  Speaker 1: try reading more paper books when you can. You'll have
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  Speaker 1: a better chance of minimizing distractions, especially if you're in
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  Speaker 1: a moment where you can't seem to get into any books.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, Marianne has also gone through periods where
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  Speaker 1: she couldn't practice deep reading. She once tried to reread
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  Speaker 1: a favorite of hers, The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse.
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  Speaker 2: It was just painful. And what I had to do
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  Speaker 2: is what I'm going to tell your listener. For two weeks,
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  Speaker 2: I forced myself to read twenty minutes a day, only
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  Speaker 2: twenty minutes, as if I was just going to force
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  Speaker 2: myself to try to be that older version of a reader.
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  Speaker 2: And I will admit it took me two weeks and
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  Speaker 2: then it was like coming home to my old reading
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  Speaker 2: self coming up.
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  Speaker 1: How to choose a book you can't put down? All right?
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  Speaker 1: Take away three. If you want to read more, you've
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  Speaker 1: got to pick the right books, write for you, and
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  Speaker 1: write for the moment. Kevin Wynn tries to match the
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  Speaker 1: books he reads to the amount of time he has.
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  Speaker 3: Available, usually reading a couple novels at a time, a
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  Speaker 3: nonfiction book and then maybe a comic book. He just
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  Speaker 3: feels so different. And then like when I found myself
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  Speaker 3: with like, you know, twenty to forty minutes on the commute,
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  Speaker 3: that was enough time for me to get through a bit.
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  Speaker 1: Of the novel. Because books have different textures and they
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  Speaker 1: demand different kinds of attention, it's smart to adjust accordingly,
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  Speaker 1: Like you might want to read something lighter when you're
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  Speaker 1: at the DMV.
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  Speaker 2: Different books demand different paces, and some books can be
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  Speaker 2: read quite you know quickly.
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  Speaker 5: The fact is, Sidhart, it can be read a lot
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  Speaker 5: faster than Narcissus and Goldman, or a glass bead game,
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  Speaker 5: or our poetry.
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  Speaker 2: Poetry requires a different pace too.
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  Speaker 1: Now, if you're trying to read a book and you've
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  Speaker 1: been struggling to get into it, ask yourself, do I
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  Speaker 1: even like this? Tracy Thomas is the host of the
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  Speaker 1: literary podcast The Stacks.
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  Speaker 7: For my work, I have to read books and finish
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  Speaker 7: books that I do not always like. I can tell
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  Speaker 7: you usually within ten to twenty pages if I will
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  Speaker 7: like a book.
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  Speaker 1: But your reading hobby is not a job, and you
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  Speaker 1: don't have to finish that book.
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  Speaker 7: I think if you're falling asleep while you're reading it,
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  Speaker 7: that's a good sign that maybe you don't like it.
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  Speaker 7: I think that if you are constantly checking your phone
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  Speaker 7: while you're reading that that might be a sign that
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  Speaker 7: you don't like it. I think that if you want
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  Speaker 7: to do anything else but read, that might be a
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  Speaker 7: sign that you don't like what you're reading.
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  Speaker 1: And Tracy says, putting down a book you don't like
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  Speaker 1: that's called cultivating taste. All right, last up, take away four.
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  Speaker 1: You're back in the habit of deep reading books that
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  Speaker 1: you actually like, and you want to keep that momentum going,
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  Speaker 1: why not try setting some goals. When NPR producer Manzi
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  Speaker 1: Krana was a kid, she loved reading, but as an
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  Speaker 1: adult she got away from it.
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  Speaker 8: I made a really simple goal read a book a month,
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  Speaker 8: twelve books a year, and by writing down each book
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  Speaker 8: I read, I was able to see how easy it
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  Speaker 8: was to reach that goal. I increase that goal a
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  Speaker 8: little bit every year to make it so that it's
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  Speaker 8: something that I'm working towards.
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  Speaker 1: You can also set goals based on the types of
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  Speaker 1: books you read.
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  Speaker 8: For example, if you're a big fan of long war
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  Speaker 8: and piece type classics, it might be more interesting for
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  Speaker 8: you to read only three books a year and actually
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  Speaker 8: just count the number of pages you're reading. Or if
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  Speaker 8: you're someone who wants to read more science fiction, maybe
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  Speaker 8: you notice you gravitate more towards nonfiction and you really
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  Speaker 8: want to change that. You can make a goal to
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  Speaker 8: read two new books from two new science fiction writers.
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  Speaker 1: While you're at it, why not start a reading journal
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  Speaker 1: or a spreadsheet to track your progress. You can read
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  Speaker 1: each book, add notes and favorite quotes.
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  Speaker 8: It feels really good to be able to see exactly
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  Speaker 8: how many books you've read. Oh, this is the one
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  Speaker 8: that I really liked this year, This is the one
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  Speaker 8: that I gave five stars to. This is the one
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  Speaker 8: that I rated the highest. It is a way for
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  Speaker 8: you to sort of reflect later. It is not meant
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  Speaker 8: to be something where you are competing with others or
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  Speaker 8: you are trying to prove something to other people. Think
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  Speaker 8: of it more as a reflection, not necessarily a competition.
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  Speaker 1: Though Manzi size. Reading does not have to be entirely solitary.
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  Speaker 1: You can join a book club.
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  Speaker 8: I love going to author's talks a local libraries, but
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  Speaker 8: there's also a huge trend of quiet reading nights at
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  Speaker 8: certain places where you can just go sit and read
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  Speaker 8: and you don't even have to interact with anyone.
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  Speaker 1: You can also just read in a public space where
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  Speaker 1: other people also happen to be reading. Going back to
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  Speaker 1: our first tip, don't wait for that perfect moment, Just
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  Speaker 1: get started. Okay, time for a recap. Take Away one,
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  Speaker 1: Read when you can, wherever you are. Take Away two,
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  Speaker 1: you'll do your best deep reading on paper, not on
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: a device. Take Away three. If you want to read more,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: you got to pick the right books. Try matching the
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: books you read to the time you have available, and
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: if you don't like a book, put it down. There
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  Speaker 1: are so many other options and take away four. To
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: keep the momentum going, try setting some goals, maybe starting
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  Speaker 1: a reading journal. But if that feels overwhelming or like
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  Speaker 1: it's going to stop you from opening a book at all,
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  Speaker 1: skip it. Remember the priority is simply to read more
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  Speaker 1: and experience the joy that comes with it. For more
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Life Kit, check out our other episodes. We have one
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: on how to make a small home feel bigger and
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: another on whether you should buy gold right now. Also,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: we love hearing from you, so if you have episode
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: ideas or feedback you want to share, email us at
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: life Kit at NPR dot org.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: This episode of.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Life Kit was produced by Sylvie Douglas. Our digital editor
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: is Malica garib and our visuals editor is Cjriekalin Megan
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Kane is our senior supervising editor, and Beth Donovan is
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Tagle,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Claire Mury Schneider, and Margaret Serino. Engineering support comes from
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Cina Lfredo BacT checking by Tyler Jones. Special thanks to
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Barklay Walsh. I'm Mariel Sagara. Thanks for listening.