The Lazy Genius Podcast - #213 - Create a Summer Reading Club

Episode Date: June 7, 2021

Obviously, summer reading is a big thing for a lot of people, and if you’re new around here, reading is one of my favorite things on the planet. Today though, I want to talk about something more specific. I want us to create a summer reading club. A reading club is a group of readers (and if you read the book, you are a reader, friend) talking about what they individually have been reading. Stuff Mentioned My first guest appearance on What Should I Read Next? and my latest appearance on it. How I track my reading using Trello My favorite books from the last decade Check out The Lazy Genius Facebook group if FB groups are your thing Grab the book club guide for The Lazy Genius Way Get a copy of The Lazy Genius Way (affiliate link) to get ahold of all the Lazy Genius principles mentioned in this episode. My favorite social platform on the interwebs is Instagram. You can follow me there @thelazygenius. Download a transcript of this episode. This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 213, create a summer reading club. Obviously, summer reading is a big thing for a lot of people. And if you're new around here, reading is one of my favorite things on the planet. I love reading. I love books. I have always loved reading in books, except for those few years after college when, I had to kind of detox from my English degree, and I pivoted from reading to television. Coincidentally, that was right around the time that Lost premiered. Those were like, those were good days. Around then is when I got into 24 as well. I watched every single season on DVD. This is not important. But sometimes I watch the seasons more than once. Like I used to be able to do a really good Jack Bauer impression.

Anyway, the point is, other than that stretch after college, I've always been a big reader. It took me a few years. years after my book break to get some real momentum going. And I just wanted to tell you before we get into the summer reading club, that changed when I started listening to Ann Bogle's podcast. What should I read next? Which I love so much. I was actually a guest on Ann's show in the early days of her show. And then more recently last year, I guess, we'll put links to both episodes that I was on her show in the show notes. But in that first episode that I was in with her and then listening to all the other episodes of her show, Anne has helped me learn what I like about reading and what I'm looking for in a book. And it's not just about like books and plot either. It's about the reading

experience. If I need momentum or not, when I need to have like a decide once principle in places in my reading where I need to like quit. You know, like this is when you quit a book. Over the years I've just really lazy genius to my reading and it's made my life so much better. So if you are into that, we'll put some links to other kind of reading related episodes and stuff that I've done in the show notes. And I also talk about reading like a ton in the newsletter, latest lazy letter, which goes out once a month. So you can join that as well. That's where I do a lot of book talk. Last month I talked about like the ways that I get out of a reading rut, lots of stuff. Again, Kendra loves books. But today, though, I want to talk about something more specific.

I want us to create a summer reading club. You guys, we should all start a summer reading club. Okay, so here's the thing about summer reading. It is so fun, right? And it's less solitary and feel than say fall or winter reading. I think winter reading, it has big time cozy fireplace vibes where you just like read in your own cocoon and you don't talk to anybody about it. Generally speaking, obviously everyone has different reading tendencies and preferences. But summer reading, to me, it just feels more like a party. It's something you do out in the open at the pool or the park or on the beach. And summer reading online is way more chatty than other seasons, at least in my experience. Everybody likes to talk about their summer reading. So here's what I would love to offer up as an

idea to you. Create a summer reading club. It is not a book club. It is not a book club. because a book club generally has one group reading the same book. A reading club is a group of readers. And listen, if you read the book, you are a reader, a friend, okay? It is a group of readers talking about what they individually have been reading. It's the kind of conversation where you like definitely want to have a notebook or your phone open or whatever so you can add all the new titles to your your goods reads list or your Trello board or your bullet journal or whatever. There's like a lot of book energy. I love good book energy. I love talking with people who are excited about books and reading on purpose, but book clubs aren't for everyone in the sense that you like different books. You like different things,

right? Or maybe you're on a budget and you can't afford to buy the new release when it comes up in book club and the library hold list is like a mile long. A reading club lets you read whatever you want, but still have a format in which to talk about it, even if no one else, has read the book. So how might that work? Let's map out your summer reading club. Okay. First, you need people, right? Now, you have a couple of ways to go about this. And I would start with the priority of in-person versus virtual. What matters most there. We've obviously lived a lot of virtual life this past year. So you might actually be super comfortable continuing some virtual things because you're like, all right, we're good at this. It's okay because my reading friend,

are actually spread across the country or whatever. Or you might be like, get me off this computer. So name that first. What matters about the format, right? That will obviously impact the people involved if it's in person. Because if it's in person, it needs to be people who can, you know, gather in the same place. Then once you know that, just invite some people to join you. Now, since it's a summer reading club, here's what I love. You could just get together like two or three times during the summer and that's it. It's so low commitment, right? This is not a forever thing.

But it could be a really fun way to connect with people on purpose, especially as we're coming out of the pandemic more and more, at least in the U.S. So decide in person or virtual, invite a few people to join. And in terms of numbers, I would say it'd be nice to have like at least four people as a low cap. High cap, I heard about a reading society that sometimes has like 30 people attend. which is a lot of people. It's so cool, but it's also a lot of people to share about the books they're reading. And they also have the expectation that that gathering, it's like, it's going to be a long night, right? But I think the average sweet spot of groups is somewhere between four and ten, maybe 12. Much bigger and you start to kind of

lose the personal connection just a bit, which might be okay if the only point is just connecting over books and getting titles, you know? You do what matters to you. Okay. Now, because it is summer and there are a lot of moving parts to people being out of town or out of routine, maybe you could even go ahead when you invite people, share the two or three summer reading club dates that you already decided. Tell the people as you invite them. So they're already on the calendar for everyone. It's kind of like the lazy genius principle schedule rest. You know, if you don't schedule rest, you likely will not do it, right? The same is sometimes true of fun things. If you don't schedule it and just hope it happens,

it actually might not. So go ahead and pick two or three dates between now and the end of August or whatever and give those dates to your people to plan around and also like look forward to. It's so fun. Okay. Now how does a meeting work? That is up to you, but here are some things to consider. probably the most daunting part of a summer reading club, especially if it's larger in size, is how do you keep the conversation on track, right? How do you keep it fun but fair where one person doesn't talk the whole time or you run out of time before everyone is done? Those are the kinds of concerns that keep us from doing fun things like this, right? There are always what ifs. There are always what ifs. What's great about being the creator and leader of something like this is that you can

eliminate those what-ifs with house rules. Set house rules is a lazy genius principle for my book, The Lazy Genius Way, and it can totally be applied to a summer reading club. Just have clear expectations, right? It doesn't mean you're being mean or demanding. It's actually really kind. It means you're giving people a clear path of how this is going to work, so they're not wondering. People love knowing what is expected of them. It is such a kindness you're giving to people and doing that. So the things that you're worried about are likely in your own head, right, in terms of like these rules. This is worth trying out, I think, despite your nervousness around those rules. This is worth trying out. And again, it's only for summer reading. You don't have to keep going after the summer's over unless you really want to.

So it's like, okay, let's set some parameters for these couple of times we're together. What a great starting point for connection. Again, especially after like such a dormant season of, you know, being desperately alone. All right. So here are some house rules. These are just some ideas that you could apply to your summer reading club. You could have one about the length of time someone shares, right? You know, like, okay, everybody gets 15 minutes or whatever it is. Maybe you have a timer involved and the, I don't know, the captain of the reading club meeting sets the timer when it's the next person's turn. You could even be, I don't know, you could even be like bookish and clever about the sound of the alarm you set. I don't know. Also, this is one thing that I have found

really helpful with alarms when you set limits for people talking, okay? And that is to have a wrap up alarm and then a final alarm. If the alarm goes off, if you're like, like, okay, you get 15 minutes. You set it for 15 minutes. And then that alarm goes off and someone is in the middle of a sentence. It sort of feels like trying to awkwardly wrap up an Oscar speech after the music starts playing. It's like you're being played off the stage. It can just be really awkward, especially if maybe you or someone else in the group is like a little bit more introverted and, you know, like don't really love talking out loud anyway. And so it just kind of shuts you down. So what really helps is to set an initial timer for the reader. But once that's,

that timer goes off, they still get an additional two minutes. So it's more gradual, right? It's a really simple thing, but it is very, it's like way less anxiety producing for someone who might be a little bit uncomfortable around timers. Another house rule could be about the number of books a person shares about. You know, maybe the timer will do the trick. But like if you want to talk about six books within your time, go for it. But it could be that, you know, setting a limit for the, for the number of books could help. So you could have a house rule of like, okay, one fiction and one nonfiction or something like that. Again, these are just arbitrary. These are just like things to get you thinking. You can think about deciding now if you are great with people

inviting friends to come, right? Or if it's just going to be like, this is the group and it's set for these couple of times or if you want it to be kind of an open invitation, you can decide now if you want to have food as part of it. I always love having food as part of things. Or doing like a group cheers over Zoom, you know, with whatever beverage everyone has. Like there are lots of fun details that you can ignore or you can pursue intentionally, right? Don't be a genius about all of us. Like you can be lazy about some of these things if they don't matter as much. But just there are lots of things that you could think about it that could make it super fun. The other piece is the actual structure.

of the reading conversation. Okay. So you could do a check-in on maybe a general topic around reading, like momentum or reading strategies or managing like all the library holds that come in at once or even just a quick check of like, how's everyone feeling about their reading right now? Or what has been the most fun thing about your summer reading so far? Anything.

Just to kind of get the conversation started. Aw isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. I don't remember where I heard this, but I remember in some sort of group context. The group leader said that research shows that it's really important for everyone in a group

to hear their voice, like in a small group conversation, to hear their voice within the first couple of minutes or something like that in the group. And so doing something that's, you know, just sort of like a quick check-in where everyone speaks seems like a really lovely idea. Okay. And then, but then obviously, this would not be a summer reading club. if people did not share about their summer reading. So here are a few questions that you could use to give people some structure when they share if you want that structure when people share.

So maybe everyone answers like one question, like one, the same question, right, when they talk about their books to have sort of a common through line with everyone. But then, you know, within the rest of their time or however you organize it, each person just says what they want to about the book. But these are some questions that you could borrow to kind of structure your own summer reading club. What does this book remind you of, right? Either another book, a place, a movie, a feeling, whatever. What does this book remind you of? Did you cast an actor in your mind as one of the characters? Y'all know I love that one. I cast everything. It was so fun. What's a favorite quote? What's a favorite thing about reading that book? Maybe a moment.

in the book, a character, a feeling you had when you read it. What's a favorite thing about the book? What did you? Not what. Why did you choose it? Why did you choose it in the first place? Was it the cover? Was it a recommendation? Was it about the feeling? Why did you choose it in the first place? How important was the cover? Right? You could even give like cover grades to the books that everyone is reading because we all just really love book covers. Like, I don't know, book covers are so fun. what did it make you want to read next? Like when you finished reading it, what were you like, oh, do you want to read that author's backlist? Did it remind you of a classic that's sort of connected?

Was it a thriller? And you're like, I need a fluffy beach read now. Like, what did it make you want to read next? Now again, these are all just ideas, right? The gist here is get together with people and talk about what you're reading. This is so low stakes. This is for a limited amount of time. It does not have to be complicated or fancy. In fact, it's probably better for it not to be unless you are just like in good command of gathering and then it can be complicated and fancy because everyone else doesn't feel the complication. You've already worked out the complication yourself. Don't take all these ideas and put them on one reading club, right? We don't need to do that. Just notice what gets you excited and then go with that. speaking of excited are you as excited about this as i am like i'm very excited about this i've already been

thinking about like who do i want to have in my summer reading club like how do i want it to be like friends like a reconnection thing is it people that like i have connected with on the internet they're local and you know getting together people that i don't really know very well as a reason to meet new people like it's so fun to think about this kind of thing now um this next thing that i'm going to share with you will not be the, an exact replica of an in-person or even virtual summer reading club in the way that we just talked about it. But I also wanted to invite you to do sort of a mini version of this with me. So I don't know if you know this, but there is a lazy genius Facebook group. I know, I know, Facebook can be not a very fun place to be. But this group is a fun place to be. It's actually a

private group. So you have to answer a question or two to get in just to keep out the randos. And y'all, there are over 11,000 people in there. I didn't even know that. Like, they basically run this community beautifully by themselves and have organically since the group started. It's really fantastic. People ask in the, you know, they make posts about like, how do you lazy genus certain things? They share resources. It's just, it's really kind of magical. And truthfully, I mean, seriously, I didn't even, I didn't even know. Like, I know I had a Facebook group because I made it. but I don't really go in there. It just wasn't a priority and Facebook makes me sad. But then I looked at it for real and I saw the way that these people, like you people are helping

each other and being a real life community to one another. It's just bonkers. It's so beautiful. So there's a lazy genius Facebook group, you guys, that you would probably really enjoy. Now that said, we're going to do a little mini summer reading club in there. I'm going to pop in probably every Friday and post what I read that week. Then anyone else can leave. leave a comment on that post of what they've read that week. You know, so it's it's kind of like the idea of sharing what you're reading just in Facebook post form. We might have, I'm still trying to decide, like we might have like a guiding question or two to keep things a little bit more succinct and knowing whether a book is right for you or not, like when you share what you've read or when

you're reading what other people share. But it will be a consistent resource of recommendations for summer reading. And I'm really, really excited about it. So that's, in the lazy genius Facebook group and we'll put a link to that in the show notes. The other thing I want to offer is that if you want to do an actual book club this summer with people where you read the same thing and you want to read the lazy genius way, we have a book club guide on the website. It's totally free, super simple, but it's a great resource if you want some guidance on how to read through and talk through the 13 lazy genius principles on purpose with a group of friends or strangers that would become

friends when you do a book club this summer. So the link for that will also be in the show notes, or you can go to the lazy genius collective.com slash LG book club. Okay, lots of book things, right? Before we go, let's celebrate our lazy genius of the week. It is Rachel Baddorf. I think I'm saying that right, Rachel. I'm so sorry. Rachel is also an honorary lazy sister. and Patreon supporter. She heard my sister Hannah and I talking on our show, The Lazy Sisters podcast about our favorite summer things. I mentioned in that episode that my favorite summer drink is a Norie Easter, which is like the storm, but also a drink. It's bourbon, lime, maple syrup situation that is served cold and then topped with ginger beer. So good. It's so good.

It's also a really great make-a-head cocktail, like for a group, because that bourbon mixture with a bourbon maple and lime, it needs to be like heavily chilled and can just be mixed ahead of time. And then you just top it off with ginger beer when it's time to serve. Anyway, Rachel did not even wait a day from when that episode came out before sharing her Nor'Easter on Instagram, complete with the thought of riffing from the maple syrup to a rosemary honey syrup, which is such a fun idea. I also wonder what would happen if you did that if you used lemon juice instead of lime, because obviously lemon and ginger are beautiful together. Anyway, it doesn't matter. It's also fun. But the real lazy genius of Rachel's post was that her husband makes himself and her cocktails regularly

and has even decided once, which I love, Lazy Genius Principle number one, to have a cocktail of the month. Stuff like that, y'all, is what we remember as the years go on. We remember those simple, regular things of having a cocktail of the month. Like, it just made me really happy to see the simplicity of that. And I just wanted to share it and celebrate Rachel. So thank you, Rachel, for being the lazy genius of the week. All right, you guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We will have so many links to all the things in the show notes. And wildly, if this is not enough book talk for you, like in the Facebook group or in your own lazy genius way book club or creating your own summer reading club, be sure to follow me

on Instagram at The Lazy Genius, where I'll talk a lot about my personal summer reading this week on my feed, like what I'm actually going to read. And remember, too, that I mentioned this at the beginning, that I review all the books that I read in my monthly latest Lazy Letter. I just, I love, I love books so much. So links for all of these things will be in the show notes. Pick the one that feels the most exciting to you right now. I'm not trying to overwhelm you. So choose according to what matters most to you right now. You don't need to do all the things. Just pick the one that gets you the most excited. Okay, that's it for today.

Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra, and I'll see you next week. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life? Because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it.

You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A-plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.