Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to make a trip to your local library.
Speaker 1: It may have been a while since you've gone, but
Speaker 1: this is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to
Speaker 1: bring some serendipity into your life. Libraries are great resources,
Speaker 1: but many people aren't in the habit of using them,
Speaker 1: even people who were probably stopped when many libraries closed
Speaker 1: during the worst early days of the COVID pandemic. These days,
Speaker 1: places are slowly opening back up, so it might be
Speaker 1: worth checking your branches hours and putting a note on
Speaker 1: your calendar to stop by. Why well, when people are
Speaker 1: out and about less and seeing fewer people, as is
Speaker 1: the case for many of us these days, it can
Speaker 1: be harder to bring new information into our lives. We
Speaker 1: go to the same websites that we always do. The
Speaker 1: algorithms of social media show us a lot of the
Speaker 1: same stuff that we've liked before. A visit to the
Speaker 1: library can change that quickly. I walked to my local
Speaker 1: branch the other day and noticed all sorts of flyers
Speaker 1: on the bulletin board. These brought a vast number of
Speaker 1: virtual events to my attention, and advertised local exhibits too,
Speaker 1: Whether I go to any of these or not, it
Speaker 1: was interesting to think about horticulture and art and music
Speaker 1: and tutoring programs for a few minutes. Inside the library,
Speaker 1: the librarians had arranged new releases on the front wall.
Speaker 1: It wasn't so much that I was interested in any
Speaker 1: titles in particular, but I noticed that I was immediately
Speaker 1: drawn to titles that I had seen before for some reason,
Speaker 1: usually that I had a review copy or a friend
Speaker 1: had written about the book. I realized that familiarity breeds affection,
Speaker 1: a point that I wound up using as a newsletter topic.
Speaker 1: So here I was barely past the front door, and
Speaker 1: I already had a new idea. Then perusing the stacks
Speaker 1: can trigger all sorts of insights too. I wound up
Speaker 1: grabbing a number of titles that struck my fancy for
Speaker 1: some reason or another. In the coming days, I'll be
Speaker 1: learning about distant swimming, nineteen forties baseball, and some random
Speaker 1: aspects of interior decorating. Well. I've recommended buying more books
Speaker 1: in a previous episode of Before Breakfast. The fact that
Speaker 1: the library books are free. Makes it even easier to
Speaker 1: take a chance on stuff that I probably wouldn't shell
Speaker 1: out twenty dollars for If it's useless, will oh well.
Speaker 1: All I'm really out is a few minutes to read
Speaker 1: a few pages and say nope, not for me, and
Speaker 1: the time to return the books. Since most libraries have
Speaker 1: almost improbable limits on how many items you can check
Speaker 1: out at any given time. I mean we're talking like
Speaker 1: a hundred titles here, you can really relish the randomness.
Speaker 1: And this randomness is altogether a good thing. As more
Speaker 1: of us are working from home and generally venturing out less,
Speaker 1: we have far less randomness in our lives. So much
Speaker 1: of the information that finds us in the modern world
Speaker 1: is already perfectly tailored to our known interests. Algorithms know
Speaker 1: what headlines were most likely to click on. I get
Speaker 1: emails from design sights with the sorts of kitchens and
Speaker 1: bathrooms that I've already looked at. We can work closely
Speaker 1: with our existing colleagues when working from home, but we're
Speaker 1: not meeting new people at conferences or networking events. It
Speaker 1: becomes much of the same old, same old. A quick
Speaker 1: step by the library can change this all up. It's
Speaker 1: free and probably doesn't need to take more than half
Speaker 1: an hour. My guess is that that's as good a
Speaker 1: use of a lunch hour as anything else. We could
Speaker 1: all use some more ideas and some more randomness in
Speaker 1: our lives, or if nothing else, we could get a
Speaker 1: few good stories too, So why not stop by the
Speaker 1: library this week. I'm pretty sure that you will find
Speaker 1: it time well spent. In the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four, then
Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
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