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How to Overcome the Challenges Facing Readers Today (Patreon)

Published:
2021-10-17 12:57:50
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Many of us here are voracious readers, tearing through books with great joy.

But, from time-to-time, even the most avid reader hits a book slump or comes up against life's obstacles.

In the latest show, we isolate six common challenges facing the modern reader in the 21st Century:

1) diminishing attention span

2) competition with the screen

3) binge culture/instant gratification

4) lacking time 

5) too much choice 

6) stuck in one's comfort zone

We are going in-depth with some practical solutions to remedy each of these issues.

As this is a long show, I have provided bolded timestamps below. So feel free to jump about to any area that takes your fancy.

Audio Timestamps:

  • 0:00 the 6 obstacles to the modern reader
  • 6:20 attention span
  • 7:10 page pacing and bite-sized chunks
  • 10:50 timer exercise
  • 11:45 how to parent your inner-child
  • 14:35 embrace a slow pace with a mindfulness practice
  • 17:00 the one-sentence focusing technique
  • 19:00 competition with the screen
  • 24:00 anchoring routines and rituals
  • 24:45 my personal daily routines
  • 28:00 tying your reading and watching together
  • 28:30 working with positive reinforcement
  • 31:00 how to make your reading your entertainment
  • 33:34 binge culture/instant gratification
  • 34:00 serialised reading experiences
  • 35:30 how to return to the good old days of music, films, books
  • 38:00 develop a binge relationship with an author
  • 40:30 becoming an active reader
  • 41:50 lacking time
  • 42:30 shallow work vs deep work
  • 46:30 shut-down rituals
  • 49:21 morning rituals
  • 52:00 reading in short and long amounts of time
  • 53:00 fast-tracking one’s erudition
  • 55:20 making time by making commitments (and law of attraction)
  • 57:00 the two best things for habit creation
  • 59:50 too many books to choose from
  • 1:06:14 how to expand your literary comfort zone
  • 1:10:00 a liberating mindset
  • 1:11:00 bringing your comforts into the cave with you
  • 1:14:15 books as meaning physicalised

Works mentioned: Melville’s Moby Dick, Hardy’s Tess of D’Urbervilles, Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, Hugo’s Les Misérables, James’ The Turn of the Screw, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Dickens’ Great Expectations, Stephen King’s On Writing, Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.

Discussion:

Let us know which areas you relate to. Are there any other issues facing the modern day reader? Have you found any valuable solutions yourself?

Happy reading, everybody!

Files

Previews only

Ep 45 - How to Overcome the Challenges Facing Readers Today

If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues: 1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes. 2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading!

Comments

Bill Freeman

Arlington, Virginia – USA Ben – OMG, this is sage-like wisdom. I appreciate your sharing, and I am so glad that I have come to you at a time in my life when I am more open and available. If you – and this esteemed membership – would allow, I’d like to share some reflections on the “high notes” of this great audio. First, to my fellow members, this is an unsolicited plug for the Homer membership level. This level allows, among all the other benefits, a personalized one-one 60-minute Zoom call with Ben. I have already had about four with him. We had our Oct. call yesterday which just deliciously delightful! As we discussed yesterday, Ben has coined a four-word key to writing a great “book review.” While “book review” is a scary early school flashback of proving we’ve read the book, his phrase is: “less summary, more speculation.” This is what I did last week with my September read post regarding my reading of Emily Wilson’s translation of “The Odyssey.” Over a couple of hours, I crafted a summary that allowed me to review my underlines and expand on what the book meant to me -- reflecting discovering as I wrote. It was a profound experience and one that I have done a few times since joining in February. You hit several things that I really liked: - Anchoring reading with exercise. Before COVID, I was reading on a bike at the gym for 30 mins about four times a week. It is interesting how much one can read this way. I want to find a way to return to this. - I have mentioned before the value of “one-chapter-a-day.” It is how I read “The Odyssey,” am reading “Les Mis, and “Don Quixote.” Think of Goldilocks’ “just enough. - I really liked the recommendation of caring a book everywhere. There is a lot of wait and down time that I am mindlessly filling with scrolling through my iPhone. - I so agree with what you said about making space for serendipity. I recently read Richard Rohr’s “Falling Forward,” in which he repeatedly spoke about “The Odyssey” which led me to read the book. This is wisdom to intentionally holding a space of discovery. - I LOVE the Joseph Campbell quote: “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek.” As I type, I think fear and shame are flip sides of the same coin. - Really like your prior recommendation of "one poem, one essay, and one short story a day" As a follow up to yesterday’s call, I want to begin this week. I’ve spent a lifetime reading thousands of nonfiction books for work, school, and because I love learning. However, and unexpectedly, I discovered through my membership, the healing value of reading fiction. I LOVED AK; I revisited so many parts. I have befriended Levin; I have a feeling of being forgiven by Dolly. Finally, and as I have discovered in my life as someone who writes and edits for a living, if you want to be a great writer, read a lot. Now, in my deep dive into literature, my writing is taking on a richness that is new. Thank you!

Sharon xx

I loved this podcast - I've listened to it twice :) I can identify with many of the obstacles discussed. As a woman of a certain age brain fog is a very real thing. Over the last five or so years I've found it really difficult to stay on task with reading or study. I've found that I need complete silence or a gentle sound [rain, birdsong, classical music] playing in the background. Screens are not a distraction for me but I suspect that's purely because I'm not of that generation. Lack of time can definitely be an issue. Work, hobbies and family life can often take priority and push reading time to the back of the queue. I can also be the queen of prevarication. I'll just hoover/load the machine/bake a cake and then I'll settle down with my book. You get the picture ;) I do carry a book with me absolutely everywhere, even if that's on my phone in Audible version. I take a walk around the Trust every lunch time on the days I work and I listen to a book for that 25 mintues. You can get through a lot of 'book' doing that three days a week. I listen to Audible during my commute each day and also when I'm doing housework - it all mounts up. I plan in tangible book reading time every day, even if that's only my one Les Mis chapter, and set myself small manageable targets to avoid the potential for failure. I think literature has replaced my default for switching on the TV or Radio during quiet or down time, and that's far more rewarding. Too many books - oh now yes, this is so true. I'm very lucky that I have managed to create myself a designated library in my lounge. I've spent the last year brutally overhauling my books: recycling all those I know I won't read again and only buying/keeping books I know I will want to read again or that mean something very special to me. However, I now have a plethora of [mostly] unread books and book overwhelm is a real thing. But I cannot complain - what complete luxury to finish a book and then be able to just go to my shelves and choose something else. Surely this cannot and should not be a negative. I do want to read ALL the books though lol. I think for me the biggest obstacle to reading was purely not making it a priority. Once it becomes ingrained into your routine and you start to view it as a tool for relaxing and escaping, it replaces all those other 'vices' you previously employed. I think you have to want to read and make it part of who you are and how you function. It's probably become my biggest coping strategy in dealing with life!