Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 2: Today's tip is to start a reading project. If you
Speaker 2: read just a little bit of something every single day,
Speaker 2: you can make it through something big in a year.
Speaker 2: All you have to do is just keep going. Long
Speaker 2: time Before Breakfast listeners know that in recent years I
Speaker 2: have pursued a few long term reading projects to help
Speaker 2: me make it through some classic works of literature. Many
Speaker 2: of us don't read the great books after we leave school,
Speaker 2: but great books are considered great books for a reason.
Speaker 2: They are often really great. So in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: I read through War and Peace at a pace of
Speaker 2: one chapter per day. War and Pieces three hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty one chapters are all very short. By reading a
Speaker 2: ten minute chapter each day, I could savor the book.
Speaker 2: I felt very little resistance to reading, and I didn't
Speaker 2: feel pressure to read fast to make it through. There
Speaker 2: were a few slow moments, but in general I loved
Speaker 2: this tale of Pierre and Natasha and Prince Andre, set
Speaker 2: against the backdrop of Napoleon's invasion of a Russia that
Speaker 2: was slowly lurching toward modernity. Having enjoyed that reading experience,
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two, I read through all the works
Speaker 2: of Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was an incredibly prolific playwright and poet.
Speaker 2: Even so his lifetime sum of play and poems all
Speaker 2: fit in a oneenty twenty four page anthology. Doing the math,
Speaker 2: I figured that was about three pages a day, spread
Speaker 2: over three hundred and sixty five days. So at that
Speaker 2: pace I read through Twelfth Night and Macbeth, and Romeo
Speaker 2: and Juliet and Midsummer Night's Dream and all the other
Speaker 2: famous plays and then not so famous ones too. Reading
Speaker 2: all the works of Shakespeare only took me about fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes a day, and honestly, that is a fascinating number
Speaker 2: to think about. All that kept me from reading all
Speaker 2: of Shakespeare's work in the past was fifteen minutes a day.
Speaker 2: It turned out to be a very doable project, and
Speaker 2: now I have done it, and I'm really glad I did.
Speaker 2: This year, I planned to read through all the works
Speaker 2: of Jane Austen, well known novels, to be sure, but
Speaker 2: also her Juvenilia and the half completed works from the
Speaker 2: end of her life. By reading her work in its
Speaker 2: entirety at a very slow, doable pace. I hope to
Speaker 2: get to know this author whose works have stood the
Speaker 2: test of time. If any of this sounds appealing to you,
Speaker 2: then now is a great time to start your own
Speaker 2: reading project. Think about what might be worth reading at
Speaker 2: a slow pace over a long period of time. My
Speaker 2: criteria is that it be doable in a few minutes
Speaker 2: a day, spread over a year, and be worth doing.
Speaker 2: That is, the person's work needs to be the sort
Speaker 2: of thing that classes are taught about. Worth doing. Is subjective,
Speaker 2: to be sure, but I think the few minutes a
Speaker 2: day is a wise move. If you bite off too
Speaker 2: ambitious of project, to say, reading war and Piece in
Speaker 2: two weeks, you will probably fall behind, you will have
Speaker 2: a busy day, or you'll get stopped by a slow
Speaker 2: part of the story. Let's just say that the whole
Speaker 2: Freemason plot part sidelines a lot of folks and you
Speaker 2: won't pick it back up. A few minutes a day,
Speaker 2: on the other hand, won't inspire much resistance. Even if
Speaker 2: it is a boring part of the story or an
Speaker 2: annoying part. It is only a few minutes. Even if
Speaker 2: it is a busy day, it is only a few minutes.
Speaker 2: You can do it, and since you can do it,
Speaker 2: you stand a better chance of actually doing it. So
Speaker 2: consider whether there is a book or an author you
Speaker 2: have always wanted to read. Could you make a reading
Speaker 2: project out of it? What would happen if you spread
Speaker 2: the reading out over a year? How much would you
Speaker 2: need to read each day? Does that sound feasible? When
Speaker 2: would you generally make the time? How would you make
Speaker 2: it work on a day with travel or lots of
Speaker 2: other things going on. If you can answer these questions,
Speaker 2: you will be well on your way to finishing something big.
Speaker 2: A year will pass one way or another. You can
Speaker 2: get to the other side of the year having read
Speaker 2: all the works of Shakespeare or the Bible, or War
Speaker 2: in Peace or Jane Austen or anything else. Or you
Speaker 2: can get to the other side of the year not
Speaker 2: having done any of those things. But all that differentiates
Speaker 2: one outcome from the other might be a few minutes
Speaker 2: a day. Small things done repeatedly really do add up.
Speaker 2: If you decide to start a long term reading project,
Speaker 2: I would love to hear about it. You can reach
Speaker 2: me at LEAs Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In
Speaker 2: the meantime, this is Laura, thanks for listening and here's
Speaker 2: to making the most of our times.
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
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Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2: Should I look forward to staying in touch.
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