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