DON GONYEA, HOST:
Hoping to get more reading done this summer? NPR's Life Kit podcast is here to help. Host Marielle Segarra helps us keep those pages turning.
MARIELLE SEGARRA, BYLINE: I have this daydream where I go to the park and read under a tree. The sun is shining. The temperature is not too hot. The ground beneath me is comfortable. I have snacks on hand. I'm hydrated, and I am captivated by the book in front of me - doesn't usually pan out like this. In reality, two minutes in, I'm sweating. My butt hurts from sitting on tree roots. I realize I forgot the snacks, and I can't focus. So I go home, turn on the TV. This is a mistake a lot of us make when it comes to reading. We think it should feel romantic, like this landmark event in our days.
KEVIN NGUYEN: You know, we have this imagination that like, oh, reading time is like this luxurious thing. I'm in my armchair, sipping scotch.
SEGARRA: Kevin Nguyen is the author of the novels, "My Documents" and "New Waves." And in 2017, he wrote an article for GQ called "How to Read A Whole D*** Book Every Week."
NGUYEN: You have to make it a more regular habit than that, 'cause if you just wait for all those times when you're drinking scotch - hopefully you don't drink that much Scotch - hope you read more than you drink Scotch. But yeah, if you wait for all those moments, you're never going to finish a book.
SEGARRA: Whether your reading daydreams involve you at the park, in an armchair, at a lakeside retreat or on the beach, what if you let those go and allowed yourself to read whenever, wherever? That's our Takeaway 1. This summer, read when you can wherever you are.
NGUYEN: The hardest part about reading a book is just, like, opening the book.
SEGARRA: Nguyen says instead of waiting for that perfect, distraction-free, cinematic moment, look for smaller opportunities throughout the day. Standing on the train platform? - there's a few minutes to read. In a long line for lunch? - you can get a chapter in. Read when you're early to school pickup or when you're waiting for your clothes to be done at the laundromat. And if you commute to work, well, that's a gimme.
NGUYEN: Driving to work, it's audiobook time. You get on the subway, it's time to, like, open the book. I'm not going to play video games on my phone or listen to podcasts. It's really easy to have that kind of discipline 'cause it's sort of like a sequestered part of your day where you decide, I'm doing this thing at this time.
SEGARRA: Now, to set yourself up for success here, you need to have books within reach. That's Takeaway 2.
JUANITA GILES: I have an upstairs book and a downstairs book and a car book and a bathroom book and a bathtub book. You know, I have books everywhere.
SEGARRA: Juanita Giles is the executive director of the Virginia Children's Book Festival.
GILES: Put them all over the place and always have one with you. And pretty soon you'll pick one up, and you'll start reading, and then there you go.
SEGARRA: Now you might be thinking, how can my e-reader or my phone be in five places at once? Yeah. You're going to need good old paper and ink books for this, and you don't have to buy them all. Your local library will be happy to supply.
Lastly, Takeaway 3 - only read the books you want to read. If you're struggling to read a particular book, maybe you need to give it a little bit of a chance or maybe you just don't like it. Traci Thomas is the host of the literary podcast "The Stacks."
TRACI THOMAS: For my work, I have to read books and finish books that I do not always like. I can tell you usually within 10 to 20 pages if I will like a book.
SEGARRA: But your book reading hobby is not a job. So no, you don't have to finish a book that has you snoozing.
THOMAS: I think if you're falling asleep while you're reading it, that's a good sign that maybe you don't like it. I think that if you are constantly checking your phone while you're reading, that that might be a sign that you don't like it. I think that if you want to do anything else but read, that might be a sign that you don't like what you're reading. Put it down. Save yourself.
SEGARRA: There are way too many books in the world to read ones you don't like. For NPR News, I'm Marielle Segarra.
(SOUNDBITE OF HIROSHI SUZUKI'S "WALK TALL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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