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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to try experiencing that uniquely grown up pleasure

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Speaker 1: of rereading a book you were once assigned to read

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Speaker 1: in school. A good literature teacher can make great books

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Speaker 1: come alive. Unfortunately, plenty of people went through school having

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Speaker 1: the opposite experience. Maybe a book wasn't taught well, and

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Speaker 1: sometimes even if it was, people resent being forced to

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Speaker 1: do things. Or perhaps your mind was on other things

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Speaker 1: in school, such as sports or another activity, and you

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Speaker 1: skim through a book doing whatever was required to pass.

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Speaker 1: In any case, when I started reading seriously as an

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Speaker 1: adult a few years ago, I had a realization. And

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Speaker 1: I know this is obvious, but goes with epiphanies. A

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Speaker 1: lot of the literature assigned in school is assigned because

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Speaker 1: it is good. Really bad books don't get reread for generations.

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Speaker 1: In order to impress literature teachers who read a lot,

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Speaker 1: a book has to be pretty well put together. And yes,

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Speaker 1: you can drive a book into the ground. When you

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Speaker 1: need to write a paper explaining the recurring symbolism of

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Speaker 1: I don't know that white whale, but still Moby Dick

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Speaker 1: is incredibly entertaining. As an adult, you don't need to

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Speaker 1: write papers, and you can move through a book at

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Speaker 1: your own pace. So why not revisit an assigned book

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Speaker 1: and see if you can find the pleasure in it.

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Speaker 1: If you're not in the habit of reading much, start

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Speaker 1: with something short and relatively accessible. The Great Gatsby is

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Speaker 1: a good choice. The narrative follows a handful of memorable

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Speaker 1: characters through a series of parties. There's enough action that

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Speaker 1: you can read through it in an afternoon. Hemingway's The

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Speaker 1: Old Man and the Sea or The Sun Also Rises,

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Speaker 1: are likewise slim but memorable. Edith Wharton's The Age of

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Speaker 1: Innocence is absolutely dazzling, and generations have rediscovered and loved

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Speaker 1: To Kill a Mockingbird. Or you can consume literature in

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Speaker 1: a different way. Untold numbers of ninth graders have stumbled

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Speaker 1: through Romeo and Juliette's Strange Spellings. But Shakespeare is much

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Speaker 1: better experienced in dramatic form, so get a recording of

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Speaker 1: one of his plays and listen to it as you're

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Speaker 1: commuting to work. I'd also note that some authors have

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Speaker 1: works that are more straightforward than others. If you're picking

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Speaker 1: up Virginia Woolf for the second time as an adult,

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Speaker 1: you'll want to The Lighthouse or Missus Dolloway, and probably

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Speaker 1: not The Waves with James joyce Portrait of the Artist

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Speaker 1: as a young man is going to be better with

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Speaker 1: a rereading than Ulysses or Finnegant's Wake. But next time

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Speaker 1: you go to a library or bookstore, peruse the ebook

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Speaker 1: lists at Amazon, think about what books you were assigned

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Speaker 1: to read in high school or college. Pick up one

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Speaker 1: that seems relatively doable, then challenge yourself to read just

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Speaker 1: fifty pages. If it's not doing it for you at

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Speaker 1: that point, well feel free to abandon the book. One

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Speaker 1: of the upsides of reading voluntarily is that no one

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Speaker 1: can make you finish, but you just might find yourself

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Speaker 1: enjoying the experience, especially as you read through the lens

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Speaker 1: of having a lifetime of wisdom and context. You might

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Speaker 1: see things that you couldn't see as a young person.

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Speaker 1: And since no one is going to make you write

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Speaker 1: a paper, well it's really the best of all outcomes.

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Speaker 1: If you've read a book that you were once assigned,

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Speaker 1: please let me know. You can email me at Before

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Speaker 1: Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. In the meantime, this

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Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making the

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Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear

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Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the

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Speaker 1: number four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me

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Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com.

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Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.