Bookworming into Spring
Quite a few of you replied to my email last week about books we’re currently reading. A few talked about wishing they were reading more, looking for new things to read, or feeling bummed about having less time to read in their current life cycle. Here’s everything I learned about getting back into reading more this past year, in case it’s something you already know that will be welcomely remembered.
The library is awesome and you should go there as much as possible. For us, that’s been once a week every week for as long as my kids can remember. Having a standing weekly date with your library makes life worthwhile, and the librarians consistently face up new and intriguing book selections to keep things fresh. I look in on the classics, visit the new releases, and then check out the cookbooks, and pick up my holds before browsing the dvd’s for classic movies. Speaking of holds…
Get the library app on your phone! You can place books on hold on the app, and the library will call you when it’s ready to pick up! This means that when someone mentions a book in passing, an interesting author is interviewed on a podcast you listen to, or you have an idea of a topic you wanted to read about, you can search it in the app and put it on hold then and there. Includes movies! Now when my teen mentions wanting to see a random 80s sci fi movie, I just check the library app and put it on hold, and we’ll likely have it by Friday night for movie night. (cancelling your streaming services and getting a dvd player is another conversation, but I’ll leave it at: highly recommend)
Palace app. Palace is an app connected to your library card where you can check out digital books and audiobooks. I primarily use this for free audiobooks while I am working alone and wearing headphones. It also comes in clutch when you are stuck somewhere with nothing to read, or especially when stuck somewhere with a kid who has nothing to read. I have hastily downloaded many Dog Man books or something fun I can read aloud on there when the “I’m bored!” get’s a little too loud.
Poems, short stories, and anthologies of essays are great solutions for when you’re short on time and attention. Many great classic authors have wonderful collections of short stories (Truman Capote, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain are some collections I read last year) Mary Oliver has written enough poems and essays to keep you company for life, and Rebecca Solnit has quite a few beautifully written and insightful modern essay collections that I loved. Trading in a few 15 minute scroll breaks for short form lit can leave you extremely well and widely read during a busier season of your life, and is also more refreshing.
Fable app. Fable is a book logging and reviewing app that I really enjoy. It also recommends books based on your taste and books you enjoyed. It has a social aspect where you can see what your friends are reading, and you can also tap “I read today!” and it encourages you to keep your reading streak going.
Bonus: This isn’t a book or library specific app, but I love the app Forest. It’s a timer that grows a little tree or plant on your phone screen while the timer counts down. If you swipe away from your timer to use your phone, your tree dies :( If you successfully don’t use your phone while it grows, the tree plants into your forest. Over time, you can grow a forest of all the trees you planted with your time you spent focusing! I really enjoy sitting down to read and “planting” a tree for 30 minutes or so. It helps me stay focused when I might accidentally check my messages and interrupt my reading when I didn’t intend to. It’s also great for kids, and my son often uses it for his afternoon reading time just for the fun of growing a mushroom or an orange tree while he reads.
Okay! That’s everything I could think of that has helped me access, remember, log, focus on, and recommend more books in the past year. Hope you find something that works for you.
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