Your brain on books

Deep reading is deeply relaxing

Naif, me, and Noa at Kingsoliver Elementary School in Fort Knox, Kentucky. 1978? 1979? Noa learned to read before me; I had no choice but to catch up.

According to Neale family legend, I learned how to read in one evening. Seems a bit far-fetched to me, but my mom swears it’s true. I was five. My mom was getting ready for an event she was attending with my dad, an Army officer. I sat on the edge of the toilet seat, watching her do her hair and makeup.  

“I want to learn how to read,” I said. 

“That’s nice,” she said, without looking away from the mirror. 

“Now.” 

So I did. My mom, an educator, swears she sat down and gave me one lesson, and then I was “off and running.” Apparently, my friend Noa had just learned to read, and I was not going to be outdone. 

The next year, my first-grade teacher put a metallic star sticker on a poster board for every book we read. As I remember it, I read so many books that my stars spilled off the chart and down one entire wall of the classroom. That can’t possibly be factual, but in that memory, there is some truth: it was competition that made me a reader.  

Over the next 45-ish years, I read for lots of different reasons: education, entertainment, and even work. (My first full-time job after college was as a book editor for a small independent press.) I’ve had seasons where I was a voracious reader and other seasons where I was lucky to make it through a few paragraphs before falling asleep. 

I’ve seen the same ebb and flow in my children. Ned, my oldest, was the very last person in his class to learn to read, but became a voracious reader in elementary and middle school. That all changed in high school, where—much to my horror—he he didn’t finish a single one of the books he was assigned in class. (He only recently confessed this to me.) In college, he returned to books. Today, if he’s not writing, he’s reading.  

And me? Today, I read for two reasons: to be a better writer and to relax.

In order to write more, I have to read more. After all, reading and writing are two sides of the same coin. I think I knew this all along, but reading this essay by Austin Kleon crystallized the epiphany for me. He writes, in part:

I actually kind of hate writing books. I often tell people I became a professional writer so I could be a professional reader, and I feel like they never believe me. What I really, really love is reading books.

Everything I do has its origins in being a fan first. I was such a fan that I desperately wanted to join in the fun, you know?

Some people are sports fans. Like Kleon, I’m a reading fan. While my youngest son cheers for the Virginia Cavaliers, the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bears, I cheer for the opinion writer Jess Grosse, the poet Kate Baer, and the economist Emily Oster. 

For sports fans, it’s not just about winning the game: it’s about the tribalism and the tailgating, the camaraderie and the competition. For reading fans, it’s about the ideas and the insights, the education and the entertainment.  

I learn a lot about my craft by reading. That’s the work of it. But the other reason I read is to relax. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about that. About how the thing that I do for work is also the thing I do for fun. Even when I’m reading for two very different purposes, I end up in the same state of mind: calm, relaxed, energized. How is this possible? 

According to Maryanne Wolf, a literacy scholar and researcher at UCLA, “deep reading” nourishes our capacity for attention, empathy and insight. That sounds really lofty, but I think that’s what’s behind that swell of satisfaction we feel when we close the covers of a good book. 

As Ezra Klein explained in a recent podcast with Wolf as his guest, it’s not having read a book that’s important. It’s the time spent in the book that really matters. It’s the process, not the product. Wolf agrees. We don’t need more information, she explains. We need more contemplation. 

This winter I feel that in my bones. I’ve made time and space for reading because I finally recognize that it relaxes me in a way that nothing else does. Forget the competitions of grade school—this is more like meditation (even when I’m reading a mass market pageturner). 

Science supports this idea. According to one study, reading reduces stress levels by 68%, which makes it more effective at helping you relax than taking a walk (42%), drinking a cup of tea (54%), playing video games (21%), or listening to music (61%). At a time when anxiety is sky high, it’s no wonder Barnes & Noble is on the rebound. 

Here’s how I’ve incorporated more deep reading into my life lately:

1. I keep a list of what I want to read. You could do this in a notebook or using the notes app on your phone. I created a Trello board called Read, Watch, Listen. I’ve got a column for books and articles. A column for shows and movies. And a column for podcasts and longform articles. It’s not a perfect system, but it gets things out of my head and gives me a place to go when I’m ready for something new. 

2. I read paper books whenever possible. There are many advantages to an e-reader, but I’m more focused when I read paper books (the same goes for reading a newspaper vs. using a news app). I can’t click on a link or get distracted by a notification. Reading print also gives me a break from my laptop, which I’m on for far too long every day. And reading words on paper makes reading for pleasure feel a little different from reading for work. 

   I’ve also noticed that when I read on my Kindle, I have no sense of the topography of a book.  I have no sense of my surroundings—of where I am in the story—and I find that unsettling. (I still love my Kindle for travel, when carrying multiple books isn’t always feasible.) 

3. I carry something to read at all times. Sometimes this is a proper book, but most of the time it’s the Substack Reader app on my phone. (If you don’t already have the app, download it now. It’s a game-changer.) So, when I find myself waiting at a doctor’s appointment or at a kid’s sporting event, I open the app and pick a newsletter to read.  This helps prevent me from mindlessly scrolling on my phone (which I still do far too often.) One of my smart phones always keeps a book in her car for long carpool lines and game delays.

   

   All your Substacks, all in one place.

4. I dog-ear the pages of books. I circle entire paragraphs, underline words I love and make notes in the margins. This helps me connect the dots. (When I confessed this to my mother, the woman who taught me to read and write, I thought she’d be horrified. But she wasn’t. She told me that she does the same. But recently she read This Is Happiness, a book that she loved too much to mark up. “To me it was just too beautiful,” she said. “And I would have been underling almost everything.” Gah—so good.)

5. When I’m done reading the book, I make notes. I use the Notes app on my phone, where I have a folder called “Books.” (Given that I include essays and other writing here, I should probably come up with a more inclusive name.) I add all of my favorite bits and note what page they’re on. This little capstone project is a great way for me to fully absorb the ideas or writing in a book before I move on to the next title. It also makes everything searchable when I want to find it later. This is a relatively new practice for me, but I’m pretty disciplined about it. I know other people who make an index card for every book they read, or keep all their favorite quotes in one giant Google Doc or pocket-size Moleskin.

6. When I was in high school, I babysat for a woman who read for an hour every morning after her kids left the house for school. Another friend of mine used to get up before dawn to give herself an hour of uninterrupted reading time. I’d see her floor lamp shining in the dark when I walked our dog down our quiet street.  At the time, I thought both women were crazy. But now I get it. For far too long, I only read when I climbed into bed, which often meant I didn’t read much. At this stage of life (with flexible work and older kids), I have more control of my schedule. So I “bookend” my day with reading: I get up before everyone else so I can start the day with some reading and then I climb into bed earlier so I can read more before I fall asleep.

   If you’ve got young kids, this approach might not work for you, but maybe you can carve out a few minutes from somewhere else in the day to devote to deep reading. If even that is too hard, listen to books using Audible (which is now owned by Amazon) and to longform journalism using Audm.

So that’s how I read. What about what I read? Does that matter? I’m no scholar, but after listening to Wolf, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t. According to her, you can reap the benefits of deep reading regardless of what you’re reading. It’s the act of paying attention that matters. So you should read whatever gets you into that deep reading groove. That could be graphic novels and YA books, self-help and mysteries, or fan fiction and business books.

Here’s what got me into the deep reading groove this year. This isn’t everything I read, but it’s everything I’m still thinking about.

In addition to the books in the photo above (which you can buy in our Bookshop.org storefront), I also really loved these longform pieces:

• Season of Envy on

  Maybe Baby

• Who Gets “Quality” Leisure on

  Culture Study

• The Enduring Allure of Choose Your Own Adventure Books by Leslie Jamison

• Mother, Writer, Monster, Maid by Rufi Thorpe

• ‘You Have to Learn to Listen’: How a Doctor Cares for Boston’s Homeless by Tracy Kidder

• What to Actually Do About An Unequal Partnership on

  Culture Study

What have you loved reading lately? Let me know in the comments.

Also on my mind

1. Speaking of books, maybe Joey Tribbiani was onto something when he put The Shining in the freezer. Here’s why you should do that with every used book you buy. 

2. The conversation around ChatGPT is overwhelming. But this essay about how AI can’t kill anything worth preserving and this Tweet kept me sane this week.

   SJ Sindu 💙 Shakti available for pre-order 💙 @SJSindu

   We don’t need AI to make art. We need AI to write emails and clean the house and deliver the groceries so humans can make more art.

3. This episode of This American Life was one of the best I’ve ever heard.

4. How do we get powerful people to care about affordable childcare? Make it about wellness.

5. It’s soup season. And, if you’re like me, you love leftovers for lunch. Enter Souper Cubes. You’re welcome.

   

   After I freeze the soup, I put each cube in a sandwich bag and then put all the cubes in a gallon-size freezer bag.

6. A few years ago, track and field athlete Laura Fleishman wrote an essay called “Dear Younger Me” that went viral. Her new book, Good for a Girl, continues that conversation. I know what I’m giving my daughter for Valentine’s Day. 

7. Many of us vowed to be more thoughtful about our screen time in 2023. Step #1: answering these 21 questions about your life on the internet. 

8. I needed another warm top to get me through this winter so I took a chance on The Essential $75 Cashmere Sweater from Naadam. It did not disappoint.  

9. Nope. This isn't a story from The Onion. The Missouri House really did tighten its dress code for women, which got me to thinking about Jess Grose’s recent opinion piece about “gendered ageism.” Remember, SBF can wear whatever the hell he wants and be taken seriously, but you should keep your shoulders covered. 

   Rep. Peter Merideth @PeterforMO

   Yep, the caucus that lost their minds over the suggestion that they should wear masks during a pandemic to respect the safety of others is now spending its time focusing on the fine details of what women have to wear (specifically how to cover their arms) to show respect here.

10. I love the idea of not keeping my phone on my bedside table, but with teenagers who stay out way past my bedtime, that’s just not feasible. I’m looking for a fix that will keep me from peeking at it during the night that isn’t an eyesore or the drawer of my nightstand. Could The Phone Home from Rachel Saunder’s be the elegant solution I’ve been looking for? The $140 price tag makes me skeptical, but you can find them for less in her sample sale.