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 to read a short book if you are
Speaker 1: out of the habit of reading or are feeling tired.
Speaker 1: In general, tackling something substantial can feel overwhelming, but a
Speaker 1: short book is short it could be just the thing
Speaker 1: to get you going. So today's tip was inspired by
Speaker 1: a blog post from Modern Missus Darcy on short novels
Speaker 1: to get you out of a reading slump. These were
Speaker 1: all well recommended books like A Spindle Splintered or A
Speaker 1: Psalm for the Wild Built that clocked in at under
Speaker 1: two hundred pages or so and could be read fast.
Speaker 1: As Anne Bogel, the brains behind Modern Missus Darcy, noted,
Speaker 1: sometimes a short book is just what you need to
Speaker 1: feel like you can start reading again. I think this
Speaker 1: is a great idea. Many people would like to read more,
Speaker 1: but sometimes we are feeling tired or busy, or we've
Speaker 1: got other negative emotions going on in our lives. When
Speaker 1: a spot of leisure time appears, it is much easier
Speaker 1: to watch short videos on social media. When I have
Speaker 1: been in phases like that, people have sometimes suggested easy fiction,
Speaker 1: like a light mystery or a romance novel. But even
Speaker 1: that sometimes feels like a bit much because I'm going
Speaker 1: to have to get mentally deeply involved in a plot
Speaker 1: for many hours. Even if the plot isn't exactly going
Speaker 1: to require any deep thinking hmm, wonder who did it?
Speaker 1: Still requires some energy. But a really short book changes things.
Speaker 1: Even if you do have to follow a plot, it
Speaker 1: is only going to be for an hour or two.
Speaker 1: You will be able to finish in just a few sittings.
Speaker 1: This feels like a lot less of an ask, and
Speaker 1: so it is easier to get started, even if you
Speaker 1: are getting bogged down somewhere in the middle. The finish
Speaker 1: line is probably less than fifty pages away, So why
Speaker 1: not look for a short book. If you'd like to
Speaker 1: go literary. The Great Gatsby is less than two hundred
Speaker 1: pages and moves along swiftly. You could go for something
Speaker 1: that is nonfiction and motivational, like The War of Art
Speaker 1: You Dora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings clocks in at just
Speaker 1: over one hundred wonderful pages. Or hey, if you're listening
Speaker 1: to this podcast and really like time management, there's It's
Speaker 1: My Fable Juliette School of Possibilities. It's a little kick
Speaker 1: in the pants that you can read in about an hour.
Speaker 1: Progress creates its own momentum. You could spend the next
Speaker 1: two weeks reading five or six very short books, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you are the kind of person
Speaker 1: who has read five or six books in the last
Speaker 1: two weeks. As you are casually mentioning a book you read,
Speaker 1: you might mention another, and then wow, you start to
Speaker 1: feel like the kind of person who reads a lot,
Speaker 1: and you are because short books are still books. Not
Speaker 1: everything needs to be long. Things need to be the
Speaker 1: length they are meant to be to say what they
Speaker 1: need to say. That's why this podcast is only four
Speaker 1: or five minutes long most days, So find the equivalent
Speaker 1: in book form and maybe that can take your day
Speaker 1: from great too awesome too. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our times. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, Please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.