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 embrace the joy of browsing. Being open
Speaker 1: and curious can create opportunities for delight. So lately I
Speaker 1: have really been enjoying browsing the nonfiction section of my library.
Speaker 1: I have certain sections I tend to visit frequently, like
Speaker 1: books on gardens and home design and travel. I am
Speaker 1: not looking for anything in particular, but as different books
Speaker 1: make it back on the shelves from other people's homes,
Speaker 1: I find something new and interesting every week. For instance,
Speaker 1: in the last few months, I read a book about
Speaker 1: Virginia Wolf's Garden, a book about the show Chanticlere Garden,
Speaker 1: which is in my neck of the woods, and a
Speaker 1: book about cabin design, complete with all sorts of photos
Speaker 1: of tiny house living. I have read a book on
Speaker 1: the evolution of human metabolism. And I am not sure
Speaker 1: I would have gone out of my way looking for
Speaker 1: any of these titles, but when I found them, I
Speaker 1: gave them a whirl and found reading them to be
Speaker 1: an enjoyable way to spend my time. I have also
Speaker 1: recently re upped my subscriptions to several magazines and to
Speaker 1: the daily print Wall Street Journal. As I am thinking
Speaker 1: about what to buy people for Christmas, I am also
Speaker 1: planning to go in person to a few stores. I
Speaker 1: well recall a few years ago having little idea of
Speaker 1: what to buy tween boys. Then I went to Target
Speaker 1: and there were all sorts of offerings there to peruse,
Speaker 1: offerings that the store was suggesting for the many people
Speaker 1: like me who were asking these exact same questions. The
Speaker 1: truth is that we do a lot of our shopping
Speaker 1: and information finding online these days, and for many things
Speaker 1: this is so convenient. Trust me, my household could not
Speaker 1: operate without free to day and often overnight shipping. You
Speaker 1: tell me you are out of socks. We can get
Speaker 1: socks that fit an eight year old to show up
Speaker 1: before school the next morning. It is so easy to
Speaker 1: just look stuff up. I wanted to know when the
Speaker 1: sun would set on a certain day in my zip code,
Speaker 1: and I could find out in two seconds. Brilliant. But
Speaker 1: we don't always know what we want. There are many
Speaker 1: things in the universe that would never occur to us,
Speaker 1: or that aren't so closely adjacent to our known wants
Speaker 1: that an algorithm would suggest them. When we see what
Speaker 1: someone else has curated and arranged, we just cover things.
Speaker 1: We can be unexpectedly delighted. Thus the joy of browsing.
Speaker 1: When I read the Wall Street Journal in print, I
Speaker 1: see that article on a certain book or a humor
Speaker 1: column that I might not have seen just glancing at
Speaker 1: the top headlines. In the library, I see books that
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have even known to type into an online
Speaker 1: search engine. Honestly, I had no idea that Virginia Wolf
Speaker 1: was even into gardening. Well perhaps it was more her husband,
Speaker 1: but still, perhaps you will appreciate the joy of browsing too.
Speaker 1: So the next time you have an hour or two
Speaker 1: unspoken for, consider going to the library, or a used bookstore,
Speaker 1: or a garage sale. Go to a few boutique type stores,
Speaker 1: or if you're looking for something vague like gifts for
Speaker 1: tween boys, even a big box store could possibly work.
Speaker 1: See what's out there, see what looks pretty, and what
Speaker 1: might serve your purposes. We can go overboard on this,
Speaker 1: of course, Wandering stores when you know you have something
Speaker 1: you need is kind of inefficient, as is driving there.
Speaker 1: If you know what you want, online is often the
Speaker 1: way to go, but consider the possibility that we don't
Speaker 1: always know what we want. Browsing can help us discover
Speaker 1: that it can be a lot of fun, and fun
Speaker 1: is a good use of time. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.