Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that if you are absorbing words with the
Speaker 1: goal of understanding what they mean, you are reading. No
Speaker 1: need to go high brow if that is not what
Speaker 1: you are into right now. Reading is reading, so let
Speaker 1: go of the arbitrary rules and you can enjoy your
Speaker 1: leisure time a lot more. If you have school aged kids,
Speaker 1: their teachers or librarians may set guidelines for what kinds
Speaker 1: of books count toward their reading requirements. Maybe the books
Speaker 1: have to match the student's reading level or meet a
Speaker 1: certain threshold for length. Those guidelines might make sense to
Speaker 1: ensure that new readers challenge themselves and see the breadth
Speaker 1: of what is out there. But you most likely are
Speaker 1: not in school anymore. You don't need to set rules
Speaker 1: about what counts as reading, so feel free to read
Speaker 1: whatever you feel like and enjoy it. Just keep repeating
Speaker 1: this phrase, reading is reading. I find this is an
Speaker 1: especially useful phrase if you find yourself in something of
Speaker 1: a reading slump. This phrase gives you permission to lighten up.
Speaker 1: You don't have to read Tolstoy or James Joyce or
Speaker 1: Tony Morrison. Do you like reading interior design magazines awesome?
Speaker 1: Do you enjoy the stories in People or US Weekly?
Speaker 1: Read on You will certainly get some insights into human nature,
Speaker 1: some of which I'm guessing Tolstoimi would have appreciated. Do
Speaker 1: you need a good laugh, Maybe David Sadaras or Tina
Speaker 1: Fey or a joke book would hit the spot. You
Speaker 1: do not need to be sitting on a beach to
Speaker 1: read something beachy, and books written for children are absolutely
Speaker 1: still books. There was a stretch of time when most
Speaker 1: of the chapter books I was reading were magic treehouse
Speaker 1: books because that is what my kids were into. I
Speaker 1: still learned about some interesting times and places, and I
Speaker 1: enjoyed this description. I came across somewhere in there that
Speaker 1: the air smelled freshly washed. I parked that one away
Speaker 1: to borrow at sometime. Young adult literature can also be
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. There is nothing like a fantasy
Speaker 1: novel that is over in less than two hundred pages
Speaker 1: to give you a manageable escape from life. Ask the
Speaker 1: kids in your life for recommendations, or feel free to
Speaker 1: reread what you read in middle school. My bet is
Speaker 1: that at least half the people reading Judy Bloom right
Speaker 1: now have a little gray hair. I love reading great literature,
Speaker 1: and I am proud to say that I have read
Speaker 1: a lot of it. But if I only allowed myself
Speaker 1: to read works by Nobel Prize winners or writers who
Speaker 1: have made it into a Norton anthology, I would probably
Speaker 1: spend a lot more time scrolling around on Instagram. So
Speaker 1: when I go to the library, I let myself grab
Speaker 1: things like books on gardening and books on Southern interior
Speaker 1: home design or whatever. Then I read the captions on
Speaker 1: the pretty pictures and know that I am absolutely still reading.
Speaker 1: If you are in graduate school, then yes, you need
Speaker 1: to read certain things to learn certain things. But if
Speaker 1: you are reading for enjoyment, which the vast majority of
Speaker 1: us are, then whatever you enjoy works reading is reading.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be more complicated than that. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E.
Speaker 1: The number four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot
Speaker 1: me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot
Speaker 1: com that before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, should I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
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