IELTS Speaking for Success - 📖 Reading (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

Get access to our episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Is a page-turner keeping you up all night? Rory explains how he went from a haphazard reader to finishing two books a month, and why he'll always choose a paper book over a portable e-reader. Listen now! Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/ Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hello, lovely, I'm Maria. My name is Rory, and we're the host of the AILT Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. We've started this podcast to give you super grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high IELS school. Your bandline score. Rory, so who are you today? Today, I'm a starship captain.

Why not? Starship captain. So Starship, dear listener, a ship that goes up into space, a starship captain. So Rory was a dancer, then he was a chewing gum tester, and now he's a starship captain. Why is Rory doing this? Because he's bored, and every time he says, hello, he decides to take up a new profession. Are you enjoying this? Maria's like, are you enjoying this? Please say no so that Rory will stop lying. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments.

I have like five left, but I can always hear more. Yeah, but Rory, like, you've got another profession. Aren't you a writer? Yes, I am. I have written five books, six, I don't know. Rory has actually written five or six books, and that's the truth. And today we're going to be talking about reading. Hmm. Interesting.

Do you like reading? I love it, actually. I've always got at least one or two books on the go throughout the year. Even when I'm busy, it's great finding out new ways or to do things or being entertained by a new story. Or an old one, if I'm rereading something that I've already worked my way through. How often do you read books? Oh, all the time, at least once a day Or I try to anyway, unless I'm feeling really tired And I can't quite manage it

When do you usually read books These days it's before I go to sleep So just after I get into bed I'll sit or lie for a bit And try and read at least a chapter a night When I have more free time Sometimes I read in the afternoon too Do you prefer to read on paper or on a screen

Oh, definitely on paper Looking at a screen for hours on end isn't ideal for me. And I think I read somewhere that it hurts your eyes, or at least damages your sleep in some way. I understand an e-reader or a phone is more portable, but they're the last things I want to look at when I'm trying to focus. Are your reading habits now different from the past? Well, while I read a lot of books as a child,

I definitely read more now, even though I have less free time. I think it's because I'm better with time management, or at least that aspect of it. Before, I'd read a lot, but it was pretty haphazard, so I'd get through loads of chapters in one go and then leave the book for a bit. Now I'm much more consistent, so I can read two books a month, and that's fine.

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See you soon. Yay, reading. Dear listener, are you a book person? Are you into reading? A reader. A reader. Are you an avid reader and enthusiastic reader? You can be, you know, you can listen to books, like audio books.

Kind of, it also counts as reading. Like, I listen to audiobooks. Why not? You can say, I love reading. I hate it. I love it. I enjoy it. I'm a big fan of books.

I'm a big fan of sci-fi novels, poetry. you know, what do you like? I always have one or two books on the go throughout the year. So kind of I read one or two books. So I pick one I read, then another. So I kind of, I read two books at the same time. It's great finding out new things.

So I love reading because I enjoy being entertained by a new story. I like to be in the know. In the know of new things, yeah. Oh, I like having fun with new stories. Sometimes I reread books. I read books the same book again. That's an interesting word to say, though. Reread.

Re-read. Yeah, like, re-listen, reread. I read once a day. I read every day. Often sometimes, like twice a week. I try to read every day. But, like, if I'm feeling tired, I don't usually read.

Or I enjoy listening to books. I prefer audio books to paper books. So we say kind of traditional books, paper books or printed books. Online books, e-books on a computer, yeah? Or audiobooks. Me, for example, I listen to audio books more often than I read paper books. Rory, what was the last book you read? Oh.

Oh, it's going to be something about science, something, space. It's not. It's, hold on a minute. I've got them behind me. Because Rory usually reads something really sophisticated. I read a book called, I just looked there at my bookcase. It's a book called Fierce Medicine. It's by a lady called Anna Forrest, who created a system of yoga.

And so I was reading about her life and her thoughts on various yoga practices. There we go. very sophisticated? No, some of the language in there is not sophisticated. Anna Forrest is a very plain spoken woman. She tells it how it is, and she swears a lot. Okay. Swears, like she uses bad language.

Yes, she says words like, f***. And Rory, like, what do you call books? Like, you read them and they can help you develop certain skills or they kind of... Oh, well, I suppose that could just be reference books, but maybe self-help books, if it's skills for life. Self-help. Yeah, like skills for life, communication skills. And self-help books are very popular these days.

Like how to get rid of depression or, I don't know. Whether that works or not is up for a discussion. How to be this or that? How to be depression-free. That's up for discussion. I prefer reading on paper or I prefer e-books. I don't enjoy looking at a screen for hours. I don't enjoy e-books, like I prefer traditional books, printed books.

Or you can say that I usually download books on my phone, I read from my phone. It's quite portable, portable, like you can carry it everywhere, right? Some books are really heavy. And you can say that I have an e-reader, so if you have a special device, I don't know how many people these days have an e-reader, a special device only for books. as a child I used to read a lot or as a child I didn't used to read much but now I read much more I read almost every day or I'm better with my time management I can manage my time more effectively I get through a lot of chapters like a book has a chapter like maybe ten chapters like ten parts

It's called a chapter, a part, one part of a book. And you can read two chapters in the evening or get through two chapters in one go at once. In one go at once. For example, if I read a detective novel, I get through many chapters in one go. So I read like 10 chapters, 10 parts. And then I can leave the book for a bit. so kind of you just stop reading. What do you call a book that is impossible to put down?

You're like, you keep reading and reading. Page Turner. So if it's a page turner, I can spend my whole evening reading one book. And I can read two books a month, for example. And deal with another, like, you can say that I just like reading. I don't read a lot. I don't read much. I am not an avid reader.

So, I used to read a lot of books at school, but these days I just use social media, you know, TikTok, Instagram, that that's enough reading for me. I read news or like journals, right, magazines, scientific articles, perhaps, news stories, that's also reading. Posts on Instagram, that's reading. Yeah, maybe why not? It is, but it's probably not very in-depth reading, is it? Do you think people these days read a lot because of all this social media? It depends on how you define a lot, doesn't it? I mean, people read more than they did maybe 100 years ago

because they have more free time to read and there are more jobs that require reading. But are they reading in the same depth and volume as before because the messages are usually shorter, for example? So it's up for discussion, I think. I want to believe that people are reading more and that we are more intelligent, but if you turn on the news, you will understand why some people are skeptical about this. Yeah, and like audiobooks are becoming really popular.

Yeah, and audiobooks count as reading. But they're not as popular as paper books. Well, I don't know. That's the thing. There are a lot of bookstores still. Yeah, also there are like reading clubs. Right. That's not have you ever visited a reading club. you read a book and then you discuss it with people.

Yeah, and like lots of people say that, okay, just read for at least 10 minutes a day just to get you going. Like 10 minutes a day, that's your reading time. Oh, not the time. Read a chapter, like a complete unit of reading and then call it a day. Yeah, and reading is a kind of meditation practice. Oh. Right.

Right. We are ready for a wrap up joke about. reading. Right, so, the joke is, I wrote a book about falling down the stairs. It's a step-by-step guide. Oh, God. Obviously, stairs have steps,

and a step-by-step guide tells you how to do things, one step at a time, or one part of the procedure at a time. So that's the overlap, and I have just died on the inside explaining this joke. Right, the listener. So I wrote a book about falling down the stairs. You know, like you go up the stairs,

and if you go down the stairs, you can just fall over. So I wrote a book about falling down the stairs. It's a step-by-step guide. Yeah, stairs have steps. So it's a step-by-step guide. Thank you very much for listening, you know. We love you. We hug you.

stay with us and we'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye. Bye. I'm not joking, by the way. I do literally have five other jobs written down here ready to go. Do you like reading? I love it, actually. I've always got at least one or two books on the go throughout the year.

Even when I'm busy, it's great finding out new ways or to do things or being entertained. by a new story, or an old one if I'm re-reading something that I've already worked my way through. How often do you read books? Oh, all the time, at least once a day, or I try to anyway, unless I'm feeling really tired and I can't quite manage it. When do you usually read books? These days it's before I go to sleep, so just after I get into bed, I'll sit or lie for a bit and try and read at least a chapter a night. When I have more free time, sometimes I read in the afternoon too. Do you prefer to read on paper or on a screen?

Oh, definitely on paper. Looking at a screen for hours on end isn't ideal for me. And I think I read somewhere that it hurts your eyes, or at least damages your sleep in some way. I understand an e-reader or a phone is more portable, but they're the last things I want to look at when I'm trying to focus. Are your reading habits now different from the past? Well, well, I read a lot of books as a child. I'd definitely read more now, even though I have less free time. I think it's because I'm better with time management, or at least that aspect of it. Before, I'd read a lot, but it was pretty haphazard, so I'd get through loads of chapters in one go and then leave the book for a bit. Now I'm much more consistent, so I can read two books a month, and that's fine.

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