Life Kit - Want To Read More Books? Here's How

Episode Date: December 24, 2020

Got an intimidating tower of unread books looming on your nightstand? This episode will help you pick up more books and get through them quicker. (This episode originally ran in 2019.)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi there. If you listen to Life Kit, chances are you're looking for ways to make life just a little bit better. That is no small task in 2020. Finding small pockets of joy has never been more important. That's why we've done so many episodes that help you do just that. Maybe one of our episodes inspired you to start journaling or camping or biking, or maybe you started a little garden or found yourself doing more art projects than you used to, or maybe you just finally perfected your morning coffee, or you've given mindfulness a try. If Life Kit has helped you breathe

or inspired you a little bit more this year, then we have a favor to ask. Please consider donating to your local public radio station. Supporting them helps support Life Kit. Thank you. Hi, I'm Julia Ferlan, and this is NPR's Life Kit. Today, we're talking about how to read more. And you know what? I'm going to start this episode with a confession. I read a lot of articles and magazines and nonfiction journalism, but I have been halfway through Michelle Obama's memoir, Becoming, for upwards of six months. There are also about seven books on my nightstand that I have not read, and actually there's an entire pile of books in the corner of one room that used to be on my nightstand until they felt

too judgmental of me and I had to move them. I know that a pile of unread books seems like a bad look, but I really do love reading. As an only child growing up, I never left the house without a book. There was an entire genre of kid photo of me at family gatherings where I'm like up a tree with a book instead of at the table with everybody else, you know? But I don't know. There are just so many

shows to binge watch, and I feel like my life is full of people and things that need my attention, and then there's that other thing that often gets our attention. Oop, gonna put that on airplane mode. It feels like I sit down to read a book, and then all of a sudden it's two hours later, and I'm three months back into an Instagram account for cats with their mouth open. Side note, that account exists and it is fantastic. Anyway, I know I'm not alone. What do you personally do as a book queen? Well, book queen.

Yeah, that's your job title, isn't it? All right. I'm going to put that down. Book queen. I like that. Yes. One always wants to be a queen of something. Well, look at that. Your very own queendom.

That's Lynn Neary, who has been covering books for NPR for a decade. So she's got like royalty status. People are always saying, how many books have you read this month? You know, how many books do you read for your job? And I never really want to sort of reveal that because I feel like that's my own private secret little number. Lynn might be able to build herself an entire house out of the books that she reads for her job, but she says that she's actually not a speed reader. But she also says that that's okay and that we should all just take it easy on ourselves when it comes to the pace that we read at. I always feel like I probably should be a faster reader than I am to do this job. But I just think people should settle down about that. Read at your own pace. Read it the way you're comfortable reading. Read the way you

like to read because it should be something that's pleasurable. Lynn also has the same struggle that many of us do, that transfixing pull of literally all other forms of entertainment. I think the idea of binge-watching TV is one of the biggest competitions for me with reading because as a reader and as somebody who loves stories and narratives, I think there's such great television out there right now, and it's just easier for me to watch television than it is to read a book. Lynn has some expert advice for getting more reading done.

I know I'm not the only one with books on my nightstand, and sometimes I don't get through more than a few pages before falling asleep if I do it at night. Her advice is our first takeaway, read in the morning. I don't know exactly when this began, but at a certain point within the last, let's say, 10 years, since I started covering books, I started waking up earlier than I used to. And I'd be awake and I really didn't want to be awake. It was like 6 or 6.30 or something. And I think, this is too early. I don't want to get out of bed right now. And so I began reading. And I think I had this idea that maybe I would read myself back to sleep if I picked up a book. And what I discovered was I was wide awake and it was a really good time to read.

Obviously, this might not work for you depending on where you're at in your life or what time your alarm goes off. But it feels like counterintuitive, which I think might mean that it's a brilliant idea. Another expert we spoke to, Kevin Nguyen, he's been working in books for many, many years and reads on average 100 books a year. He has a great piece in GQ that he wrote called How to Read a Whole Damn Book Every Week. Kevin is also a big morning reader. He says the key is if you want to read more, you have to make it really, really easy. The hardest part about reading a book is just like opening the book. Right. I think a lot of people when they sit down and they read, it's not hard to get lost in it.

It's not hard to just actually read the book. It's just easy to be distracted by your phone and any other number of things going on in your life. So I think part of it is, you know, we have this imagination that like, oh, reading time is like this luxurious thing. I'm in my armchair, sipping scotch, or I'm, you know, about to go to bed. You know, I think it's you have to make it a more regular habit than that. Because if you just wait for all those times when you're drinking scotch, hopefully you don't drink that much scotch. I hope you read more than you drink scotch.

But yeah, if you wait for all those moments, you're never going to finish a book. I think he's so right about this. I mean, I respect Michelle Obama so much, and in my head, I've been thinking that in order to give her words the attention they deserve, I've got to have, like, an uninterrupted span of seven hours and my perfect mug of tea and the perfect light and my fuzziest socks. But you know what? Michelle, I'm going to call her Michelle, Michelle will never know if I read her book on my phone

while I'm standing on the subway platform avoiding my nemesis, a subway busker who plays Free Fallin' by Tom Petty every single morning. Michelle Obama is never going to know. Okay, so this is our second takeaway. Read when you can, wherever you are, especially if you're commuting. It's a built-in thing in your day. You're driving to work, it's audiobook time. You get on the subway.

It's time to like open the book. I'm not going to play video games on my phone or listen to a podcast. It's really easy to have that kind of discipline because it's sort of like a sequestered part of your day where you decide I'm doing this thing at this time. Another thing I like about reading on your phone is it's always with you. So like when you're in line at like a cafe and you just know it's going to be like a five minute wait, like that's five minutes you can read right there. And those minutes add up a lot. Having a book with you for all those little

in-betweeny moments of your day is so smart, right? Like when you're waiting for the bus or in any kind of line, that's when you read. Audiobooks are also a really great way to do this too, because that means that, boom, the car is now fair game for getting some reading time. When Kevin showed up for our interview, he had two paper books in his bag, plus several that he was reading on his phone. And while we're talking about phones, this could be a really smart way for you to rethink your relationship to your phone, you know? Like, if you're getting through a few more pages of Michelle Obama instead of scrolling through the really dismal news coverage, I don't know, like if you're getting through a few more pages of Michelle Obama instead of scrolling through the really dismal news coverage.

I don't know. That sounds like a win to me. Here's takeaway number three. Match the kind of book that you're reading to the amount of time that you have. I'm usually reading a couple novels at a time, a nonfiction book and then maybe a comic book. I see. And they could they just feel so different. And then like when I found myself with like, you know, 20 to 40 minutes on a commute, because that's the span of a subway commute. It could be 20 minutes or 40 minutes. Yeah, never know. That that was enough time for me to to get through a bit of the novel. Because books have different textures, and they demand

different kinds of attention from your little brain. It's smart to dip your eyes into something lighter when you're at the DMV, for example. I mean, the DMV is dark enough on its own. So then you can save that historical doorstopper for when you're in the right place to really take it in. There's another thing that's beneficial to reading multiple books at multiple speeds at the same time, too. It can give you a sense of achievement, which is our next takeaway. Track your reading. Some people keep track of how many pages they've read in their books, but Kevin just has a little note in his phone with all of the books that he's completed.

That's part of the feeling of accomplishment and momentum. It's funny how, like, quantifying these things can actually be pretty encouraging. I know, like, if you do CrossFit, you know, like, you write down your exercise and your times that day, which sounds very corny, but there's no reason that you can't keep track of that. Look, I have never done CrossFit, but I have watched my friends' triceps appear before my very eyes as they posted all these weird acronyms and stuff on Instagram. And stay with me here. Reading is like CrossFit for your brain on some level, right? I like to think of tracking your reading as a thing that I sometimes do when I'm making a to-do list, right? Where I like write down a few things

that maybe I've already done or maybe they're like really simple things just so that I can cross them off and feel this like rush of accomplishment. Kevin just uses the Notes app on his phone, but some people also use sites like Goodreads to track what they've been reading. And if you want, you can also track your reading by posting about it on social media. I see a lot of people keep track

of that stuff on Instagram and will tweet about it. I think it's a great idea, you know, because taking a photo of a book and putting Instagram is like a good way to keep track of your goal and also like tell people you read a book, then people know you read it and maybe want to talk to you about it if they've also read it. And then what's always funny is like you sort of see like midway through the year, the books start to get like a little skinnier. Something's like a poetry collection in there. But I think that's totally fine. Both Kevin and Lynn told me that it's important to accept that not every book is going to be the one that grabs you.

When you start a book, sometimes it feels like this promise that you're making to yourself. But I think it's important to say here that you have to be able to let it go if you can't push through a book. You don't have to like every book. One challenging thing I think about goals, especially like an every week goal, it's important to say here that you have to be able to let it go if you can't push through a book. You don't have to like every book. One challenging thing I think about goals, especially like an every week goal, it's like you're just going to go a week where you didn't finish a book. Like maybe you were on vacation or work was really tough. That's okay. It's okay to fall off the wagon and just push yourself to like make up that week. Here's a thing that really appeals to me about tracking my reading.

Like those folks who all of a sudden are posting their poetry collection, I feel an incredible rush of accomplishment when I finish a book quickly. And if I'm following Kevin's example and reading lots of different books at the same time, I'll feel good with some momentum from speeding through one book so that I don't get caught in my current situation where there's just one lonely book sitting there half read and then a whole pile of other ones looking at me resentfully. Okay readers, listeners, well whatever you are, let's recap everything that we talked about on this episode so that you can turn this podcast off and get fired up on some reading, okay? First, don't be afraid to read first thing in the morning before your whole day happens to you.

Second, read in the in-betweeny moments, especially when you're already trapped somewhere or commuting. Third, match the book you're reading to the amount of time that you have. And finally, track your reading so that you can feel like you're really getting somewhere. And if you're looking for something really good to read, check out NPR's Book Concierge. There are hundreds of recommendations from all of the smart staffers

and critics around here. And you can search for like really specific topics like ladies first, or rather short, or rather long, or tales from Around the World. And you can find all of that at NPR.org slash best books. For more of your favorite show, NPR's Life Kit, check out our other episodes. There's one that's a cheat sheet to investing. And I can't promise that you're going to get rich quick, but you can listen and find out. You can find all of our episodes at NPR.org slash Life Kit. And while you're there, please subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a single episode. And here, as always, is a completely random tip. This time from Life Kit listener Cora Puddin.

If you smother a half avocado in butter, it can keep it from turning brown. If you've got a good tip, or you want to suggest a topic, email us at lifekit at npr.org. This episode was produced by Sylvie Douglas. Megan Cain is the managing producer, and Claire Schneider is the gravitational pull holding the entire LifeKit

universe together. I'm Julia Ferlan. Thanks for listening. I'm Guy Raz, and on NPR's How I Built This, Thanks for listening.