Ep 432 - Hot Tips for Focusing on Reading + Adam Sockel!

Summary

Reading Glasses Ep 432 - Hot Tips for Focusing on Reading + Adam Sokol!

Date: October 9, 2025
Hosts: Brea Grant & Mallory O’Meara
Special Guest: Adam Sokol

---

Episode Overview

In this episode, Brea and Mallory dive into strategies and practical tips for improving reading focus in an era of constant distraction, with a special emphasis on phone habits and self-compassion when reading feels hard. They test out the Focus Friend app (created by Hank Green) and interview returning guest Adam Sokol—longtime Reading Glasses fan favorite and now debut novelist—about his new book The Ballad of Bonaventure Palmier, parenting, and maintaining a reading life through major life changes.

---

Main Discussion: How to Focus on Reading (16:14–30:06)

The Challenge of Focus in 2025

• Mallory candidly discusses new struggles with focus, possibly due to hormonal changes or evolving ADHD symptoms:

  "Some days it's really bad and just like sitting down to read at all can be a real struggle for me…I’m having a lot of trouble sitting down and just like sitting down and reading in the afternoon just seems like impossible to Me." (16:38)

• Brea shares that quitting social media has been transformative for her ability to focus:

  "That's around the exact same time where I got off social media…Turns out it's great. It really helps." (17:30)
  "I hate to say it, but it's true. Being off your phone is good." (17:34)

Notable Quote:

"No one's strong enough. It's designed to us up guys. Even because we can't throw our phones into the ocean."
—Mallory (19:28)

Top Reader Focus Tips

• Remove Phone Distractions:

  • Put your phone on Do Not Disturb or physically out of reach.
  • Limit notifications to only truly important contacts.
  • Mallory: "If I just go put the phone, like, slightly out of reach...I don't know when that happened, but if I just scoot that phone slightly forward...out of reach..." (20:24)

• Honor Your Brain’s Cravings—Unless It’s Your Phone:

  • Brea lets herself binge a show, play a video game, or take a break from reading when needed, without guilt:

    "I don't want reading to feel like a chore..." (21:23)

  • After indulging in the distraction, the desire to read often returns.

• Use Timed Reading Sprints:

  • Set a short, manageable goal—20 minutes, or a certain page/percentage.
  • Reward yourself after with a break.
  • Mallory: "I give myself a goal and it's short these days. It's short. It's 20 minutes..." (22:49)
  • Brea: "If you keep it up even a little bit, you will have an easier time when you are in the mood to read." (24:45)

• Consider the Book, Not Just Yourself:

  • Mallory urges listeners not to blame themselves if they can’t focus:

    “Maybe it is the book, maybe it's not you. So like, don't internalize all the blame. Like, blame the book. Maybe it's a shitty fucking book. Get it out of here.” (27:19)

• Creative Timers:

  • Use ambiance videos timed for Pomodoro (25 minutes) or a record player to define a reading session (one side = one reading sprint).
  • Brea: “…I use my record player because one side of a record is only like 10 to 20 minutes. So I'll be like, all right, just focus on reading until you get it. Have to get up to flip the record.” (27:55)

• Special Focus for Readers with ADHD

  • Bria welcomes listeners with ADHD to send in their tips (29:55), acknowledging that brain differences require alternative approaches.

---

Listener Feedback & Reading Community (05:56–13:27)

Libby App—Hot Tips:

• Utilize Libby’s tag feature to organize TBR lists by mood/season; then sort by "Available Now" to prioritize instant reads. (06:00–07:11)

Encouraging Motivation & International Access:

• Listener "Charles/Sarah" shares a story about returning to reading thanks to recommendations and goal episodes; emphasizes support from the show's advice. (07:27–08:23)
• International listeners are crowd-sourced for practical solutions to accessing English-language ebooks/audiobooks (notably US library cards for Libby) in light of recent policy changes. (09:10–10:52)

Wheelhouse Highlight:

Sarah's Wheelhouse:
"Compentence point, especially when kindness is beside competence. Animal sidekicks who are main characters in the story. Dense space operas that get all political. Satire that is mocking human behavior, but with kindness." (10:52)

---

Author Interview: Adam Sokol (31:32–57:47)

Adam's Reading & Parenting Journey

• Adam shares current reads and notes what his baby daughter, Ren, is loving—especially Anti-Racist Baby and Sesame Street’s "Monster at the End of This Book." (32:52)
• His reading pile includes big buzzers like V.E. Schwab's Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and Fredrik Backman’s My Friends, and the reflective The Swimmers and When the Cranes Fly South. (33:59–39:12)
  • “Frederik Backman writes these lines and these little things that make me want to stop listening and go start writing.” (35:44)

On The Ballad of Bonaventure Palmier

• Adam’s debut blends magical realism and found family with vignettes and fables, inspired by his own transformative life changes at the end of the pandemic.
• It’s “the story of an older man who...reflects back on his life," featuring circus magic and fairy-tale interludes, with strong “Glasser Nip” appeal. (40:11–42:35)

Focus Strategies for Readers & Parents

• Audiobooks are a Lifeline: Adam listens while caring for his baby, finding it easier to focus this way than with physical books. (44:10)

• Reading One-Handed:

  “I have steered away from hardcover books because they're too heavy... If I'm reading an ebook, I can...swipe through a book on one hand.” (45:08)

• Airplane Mode for Digital Reading:

  “If you're reading anything virtually on your phone...disconnect from the Internet because the book's already there. It's already downloaded.” (48:06–49:52)

• Carving New Schedules:

  • Adam and his partner Alex discovered new reading windows after baby bedtime, and intentionally put away phones for book time.

• Creative Life with Kids:

  “The things that you love doing, keep doing them. With Wren, she came into our life, not the other way around.” (50:01)

Notable quote:

“This is gonna sound like tough love, but just figure it out. Like, find time to do things. Because kids are amazing and they're a lot, but also, like, they're really malleable...” (53:58)

Adam's Updated Wheelhouse (54:10)

• “Small stories about big emotions,” family/interpersonal tales, pastoral settings, Gothic horror, magical realism, nature nonfiction, and reflective elderly protagonists.

“I still love what I call small stories about big emotions. That's gonna be the way I describe books that I love, I think, until I'm no longer.” (54:46)

---

Book Tech Review: Focus Friend App (57:59–62:59)

What is Focus Friend?

• A free app (by Hank Green) that gives you a cute “bean” who can only knit when you stay off your phone.
• Set a timer (5 minutes–2 hours); if you use your phone, the bean drops their knitting.
• Socks earned during focus mode unlock decorative items for your bean’s “house.”

Hosts' Reactions

• Mallory:
  "I love this little bean. He's so cute. He is so cute." (58:52)

  "It made me go, well, I'm not gonna...there was like, oh, I should send this one text. And I picked up my phone and it was like, well, you have seven minutes left. And I was like, well, I can wait seven minutes to send a text. Yeah, there's no. It does help." (60:46)

• Brea:
  Loves naming her bean, using the lock screen display as a deterrent, and gamifying her focus:

  “Please consider me part of Bean Nation...It's very cute. It's very easy to use. It's completely free. It does not track your data.” (61:08)

• Both rate the app a flawless 5/5 for readers looking to minimize phone distractions.

Notable Quote:

"Our brains are all rotted on there...But am I gonna bother this little bean? Like, it really externalizes it, which helps a lot. You know, let him knit."
—Brea (62:06)

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "No, I don't want reading to feel like a chore. I never want to be like slapping myself on the wrist and be like, no, got it. Time for reading... that's just one way ticket to slump town, baby." —Mallory (21:23)
• "Make sure you like what you're reading." —Mallory (26:21)
• "He's just a silly baby. What does she know? She can't do anything." —Adam Sokol (50:26)
• "Focus Friend... five out of five pages for me. It's free. It really helps you... it's great for reading, it's great for staying off your phone." —Brea (62:08)

---

Episode Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening Book Chat: 00:38–05:45
• Listener Feedback & Libby Tips: 05:56–13:27
• Main Focus Strategies: 16:14–30:06
• Adam Sokol Interview: 31:32–57:47
• Book Tech Review – Focus Friend: 57:59–62:59

---

Resources & Recommendations

• The Ballad of Bonaventure Palmier by Adam Sokol — Available via Amazon (paperback/ebook) or request at your library via Libby
• Focus Friend App: iOS & Android, free, by Hank Green

---

Closing Thoughts

This episode is packed with practical, judgment-free advice for building or re-building reading focus, whether you’re battling phone addiction, new-parent brain, or the stress of modern life. Mallory, Brea, and Adam all encourage a compassionate approach: remove distractions, keep the habit alive in small ways, forgive yourself for slumps, lean into joy, and let technology (like Focus Friend) cheer you on.

---

For book lists, show notes, and more: Reading Glasses newsletter link in the show notes or find the community on Discord/Facebook.

Transcript

[Mallory O'Meara]

Foreign.

[Bria Grant]

You're listening to Reading Glasses, a show about book culture and literary life designed to help you read better. I'm author and book devourer, Mallory o'. Meara.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And I'm Bria Grant, filmmaker and e reader. This episode, we're giving out tips on improving your reading focus. Plus, we're testing out a new app that y' all are all using, apparently called Focus Friend.

[Bria Grant]

Beantown, baby.

[Mallory O'Meara]

We keep calling Focus Bean, and we're interviewing longtime friend of the show, Adam Sokol about his new book.

[Bria Grant]

Very excited. We haven't had Adam on in a long time.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So exciting, exciting.

[Bria Grant]

Very happy to have him back. Great interview. But first, Bria, what are you reading?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Well, we've entered October, so I'm reading a non fiction book about the brain.

[Bria Grant]

What are you doing?

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's the scariest thing there is.

[Bria Grant]

I mean, it's. You are. It is true.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm reading the Brain at Rest, how the art and science of doing nothing can improve Your Life by Dr. Joseph Jelly. I believe I'm listening to it, actually, and it's the same. Look, I. I keep being drawn to books like this, obviously for a reason. I love a brain book, but this one particularly, it's all about, like, how important rest is for the brain. Not just sleep, but just turning off, like, not reading, not looking at your phone, not doing anything but staring at the fucking clouds or meditating or whatever. Turning our brain off and how important that is. And the first part I've just got through is about how they have measured brain waves and they find that it's just because you're not reading or engaging or doing something, it doesn't mean your brain just like, it doesn't go off like a light switch, which I think a lot of us, especially creatives, but. But all people, I think. But I know I'm very guilty of this, of. Of being like, well, if I'm not, like, if I'm not doing anything right now, I should be, like, making my brain work. I should be, like, learning about something. I should be reading a book. I should be, you know, researching. Even if I'm not working, I should be doing something. And the point of this is, like, actually, no, your brain is doing, like, the most work, like, doing a lot of good work while you're not doing anything. While you're just. Just walking while you're not doing anything.

[Bria Grant]

It's processing.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Sitting there.

[Bria Grant]

It's.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Well, it's processing and it's doing, like, all sorts of creative things behind the scenes, which is why I Think so many people, like, find a lot of value in meditating, but generally just sitting, just sitting there and breathing is really important for your brain. And. And I'm just now starting it. So I'm sure there's lots more that I'm like totally butchering and saying incorrectly. But this is the kind of book that I always. I feel like I read once a year and go, yes, I should do less. So it's always helpful to me because the scariest thing is overworking. That's the real, real horror in October is overwork.

[Bria Grant]

It's. I mean, it's true.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. Slowly murdering us all.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's actually true. That's what the beginning of this book is all about, is how this author, his dad basically got. Was diagnosed with like, very serious depression and anxiety. And it was basically because he was overworked. I mean, obviously there was a lot going on there, but the overwork culture is hurting us more than we're even realizing we're getting burnt out. What are you reading?

[Bria Grant]

I am reading about the second scariest thing. Ghosts in the ocean, baby. I am reading a book that I talked about during our most anticipated episode for October, and it's the Salvage by Ambara Salaam. You know, I love this author. I loved her last book, Hazardous Spirit. So this was really, really high up on my most anticipated books for the year. And I was correct in anticipating it because it bangs. This is. I mean, it's basic. It's a haunted shipwreck. Like it is. It's two of the scariest things to me. It's a haunted house in the ocean. It is a historical book that takes place in Scotland in the 1960s. It's about this woman. She is a diver and she is in investigating this. This sunken ship off of the coast of Scotland. And it's haunted. Like, it's just so scary. It's also queer, which is really exciting. I wasn't sure in the. When I initially looked at the book if it was queer or not and shout out to tin House because they reached out and they're like, oh, it's queer. I was like, thank you. This is the kind of. It's the kind of emails we need. But I mean, just the, in the, the first couple chapters, like, there's a really scary. Because thing is, I'm terrified of the ocean.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I. Oh, I didn't know that about you.

[Bria Grant]

I'm really afraid of the ocean.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Wet. Wet horror, as we call it.

[Bria Grant]

Wet horror. I mean, the ocean is all. Is nothing but wet Horror to me. As far as I'm concerned, it's none of my business what's in there. We shouldn't be poking around. It's too scary. I'm really scared of the ocean, so it's been a really interesting experience for me because I love a haunted house book so much. And I mean, what is a boat but a floating house? And it's. It's so. It feels kind of like a haunted house book, but it's under the ocean, so just like, picturing being under there is already so scary to me. And then there's a scene like when she first goes in the boat. This is not a big spoiler because it is a haunted shipwreck. And she's, like, looking around and there's just a man. And I'm like, oh, like, it's so scary. But it is amazing. I mean, Embar Salaam is so fantastic at historical fiction. So it's like gothic. It's historical. You're into, like, marine archaeology. This book is amazing. And it's just like, there's a. The Cuban Missile crisis is kind of in the background. So there's, like, really interesting, like, historical stuff happening.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But.

[Bria Grant]

But there, you know, there's a mystery about trying to find where these objects are. Like, she's. She's sent to go dive for these objects and some. And they start to go missing. She's trying to find them. There's this, like, really rich family that is. That is bankrolling the whole expedition that is really like, there's just a lot going on and it's. But it's all like, at the base of it, it's just fucking. It's really fucking scary. This ocean is scary. Ships under the ocean are very scary. I highly recommend this. I'm lov. And it takes place in October, which is really, really fun. So it feels like reading it this month has been extra great. So I'm reading the Salvage by Ambara.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Salaam and I'm reading the Brain at Rest how the art and science of doing nothing can improve Your Life by Dr. Joseph Jabelli.

[Bria Grant]

So we want to take a moment to share some listener feedback. Talia wrote in to say I just listened to the holiday reader challenge episode. I was listening to the reader that has an issue of not being able to get the hold on Libby when they would like to or are ready to read the book. I too had this problem until I noticed the tag tab in Libby app. I started to treat that as a TBR list of different seasons or genres Anytime I hear about a book that sounds interesting, I open the app to check if my library has it and then I add it to the correct tag list. So when I'm ready to pick up my next book for my mood, I click on this list and hit the button at the top available. Now the books that are currently checked out drop off the list and I'm able to check out something right away. Some of my lists have 100 books so some will be ready to check out. This is honestly I like oh yeah, I some people do. I I know a lot of people do the the available now for their TBR list but separating it out by mood on Libby is is is gonna say hot tip, hot book day. Also I do want to say a lot of folks have been writing in about the changes that Libby has made to their delayed hold. The thing is we do these show. We prep these shows in batches in advance so when something happens, the soonest we're going to get to it is probably two to four weeks from now. I promise. There is an episode coming where we're talking about the changes to Libby.

[Mallory O'Meara]

We're on it.

[Bria Grant]

We, Mallory and Bria are out on the streets. They're.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, they're beating the pavement.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, well, people have some very divided opinions about it, so don't worry, we're going to be talking about it. Just want everyone to know we are. We're on the case.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Charles wrote in and said Hey y'.

[Bria Grant]

All.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Just like to say thank you to both of you and your producer. Hey, shout out to Brit. I read a ton as a child but stopped after school started making me read. Fast forward to the last year. Being 32 and not having read a book in 10 plus years. A friend convinced me to read Dan Simmons Hyperion and that broke the seal and I finished 50 audiobooks that year. Wow. 50. Jesus. Wow. Y' all show has really helped me understand how to have a healthy relationship with my reading and your goal Episodes made me realize I wanted to start physically reading books slash ebooks instead of just listening. Since setting that goal, I'm happy to report that I'm reading about two books a month. Thank you to Libby. Slash Overdrive on my Kobo Libra too. I cannot begin to express my thanks to y' all for being a primary source of motivation for growing and improving my reading life. And an extra thanks to all the hard work on the recommendation episodes. I love them and they are instrumental in refilling my tbr. All the best from Charles, but you can call me Sarah.

[Bria Grant]

Love it. Wow.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is we can and we will. That's so nice. We live for these kind of emails. They're so lovely. Y' all think like you only have to write in if you have something. No, you can just say we you really like the show. We love these kind of.

[Bria Grant]

And I will say after we talked to Bria, Aunt Bria came in to give her disciplinary announcement a few weeks ago. A lot of people wrote in with some really nice things. So thank you. I really appreciate that. It was very nice to get a crop of of positive thank you emails. After a crop of people telling me that I deserve bad things, Sarah wrote in to say Dear Brian Mallory, hello from France. I've been a listener for six months or so and I'm incredibly amused by how many listeners are called Sarah. So I just had to join in. I live in France, but I'm Irish and I used to live in the US and after that Australia. I've moved a lot. Also I live beside the chateau from Ever After. It's called. It's called the Chateau Hot Fort Hautefort and I walk my dogs there. And yes, it is as beautiful as in the movie. I have to say I just I rewatch Ever after every September. I just did my yearly re watch movie bangs like a screen door. Love it. I would love to visit that that chateau. This is another call for international help because I know we have a lot of international listeners here. Sarah has a question that I hope some of our international glassers will be to assist her with. I used to be able to get a non resident library card for a yearly fee of roughly $100 depending on the library inside the U.S. but sadly, more and more U.S. libraries are cutting the ability for a non resident to pay a fee to get a library card. So my question is desperate. Do you know of any libraries offering non resident readers access to Libby? I'm happy to pay a fee, but I'd rather give money to a library than to Audible or something like that. I hope you can help. French libraries are nice and all, but for enjoyment I read in English. Libby is fab for an English reader, but does not seem to have a facility for international access without a US library card. And I can't find libraries who still offer one in 2025 due to US libraries cutting back on that ability. I hope you can help or you have other listeners out in the international waters with the same problem. Maybe someone has a solution. Bri, you want to read Sarah's Wheelhouse.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But glassers help out.

[Bria Grant]

This Sarah I mean, this is just another symptom of our fascist regime cutting funding to libraries. And libraries are doing their best to stay afloat. And this is one of the things libraries are having to cut off. So if people know of libraries that still allow international access, please write in and help out this Sarah and all the other international Sarahs that are trying to get access.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Sarah's wheelhouse is competence Point, especially when kindness is beside competence. Animal sidekicks who are main characters in the story. Dense space operas that get all political satire that is mocking human behavior, but with kindness. I see a kindness streak here. Very nice. We like that.

[Bria Grant]

Love it. You can email us at reading glasses podcast gmail.com if you want a list of all the books we talk about on the show delivered to your inbox every month. You can sign up for our newsletter. There's a link in the show notes. All right, Couple bookmarks. First off, just a reminder. This is your last call to join the Reading Glasses Glasser Book Club. This book club was voted by the Glassers if you've read the Bewitching by Sylvia Moreno Garcia. If you're really, you got a lot of time today when this episode drops, you can probably power through it and do it. Do it with us tomorrow. If you've already read the book and you just want to talk about it with someone, now is the time. But you have to be a member. You are not already a member. Go to maximumfund.org join to sign up support Reading Glasses. Send a screenshot of your membership to reading glasses podcast gmail.com and we will email you a link to join this discussion. We're so excited. It's going to be so much fun. We love doing these. We love talking about books with the Glassers. I love, I love doing this because this is a book that you all chose. So it's extra fun to to read a book that has so much enthusiasm. We love this author. This is a big Glasser author. Perfect book for October. We love witchiness. We know you love witchiness. And if you're listening to this late and you missed the event, we did record it. So if you want to hear it, it's that recording is members only. But you can listen to it right now. If this is in the future, which if you're listening to this a month from now, it is again, same thing. Go to maximumfun.org join to sign up and support the show and you will have access to all of, I mean all of Max fun bonus content. But you will have access to almost nine years of reading glasses bonus content. So you'll get that a lot and you'll get, I mean there's so much, there's a lot of fun stuff in there, but you can do that anytime. You can do that right now. It supports the show. You get a lot of extra stuff and you get to listen to this really fun event that we did. Also, just a second reminder, if you are writing in for Sci Fi recommendation requests for your dads and husbands, we already did that. We did an episode on it. I'll put the link in the show notes. But there is a. We did a whole episode specifically for Sci Fi books for dads and husbands. And after we recorded that episode, we said we are going to retire doing them for quite a long time because we get so many of them. So link in the show notes for that. Check it out. We got all your husbands, your dads, your uncles, any male figure in your life that wants a Sci Fi book, we got them covered. So before we give out tips about reading focus, we're going to take a quick break.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Reading Glasses is brought to you in part this week by ZOC Doc. You know, as I get older, I keep catching myself thinking I should go to the doctor more. It's really true. I have trouble sleeping. I'm stressed from work. You know, I used to not have any like muscle aches. My muscles, my joints. Oh Lord, I haven't done anything different. And all of a sudden I have joint pain. What is going on with that? But it can be really hard to get in to see your doctor or any doctor, which is where ZocDoc comes in. They're dedicated to making it easy to find the right fit and book an appointment fast directly on their website. ZocDoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality in network doctors and click to instantly book an appointment with zocdoc. You can book in network appointments with more than a hundred thousand doctors across every specialty from mental health to dental health to primary care to urgent care. Anything you could possibly need. Appointments made through Zocdoc also happen fast within 24 to 72 hours of booking, which you'll know. There are so many times where I, I'm like, oh, I found a good doctor and they have an appointment in three months. That is not soon enough. More often than not you can get a same day appointment through ZOC Doc. This is something we have all been needing for a long time. I was literally just talking to someone who was saying, oh yeah, the insurance company sent me a 50 page doc of doctors I could go to and I had to call each one individually to see if they worked. No, we don't want to do this anymore. ZOCDOC is solving this problem. It will make things easier for you. If I am looking for another doctor, this is definitely the product that I would use. So stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to Zocdoc.com glasses to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today. That's Zocdoc.com glasses Zocdoc.com glasses glasses.

[Bria Grant]

Now, everybody knows that the Greatest Generation has always been Max Fun's go to podcast for old Star Trek recaps. But what my theory presupposes is what if it isn't? In a shocking turn of events, Greatest Trek, the comedy podcast covering new Trek, has gone through a temporal wormhole back.

[Adam Sokol]

To the very beginning because we are now reviewing Star the Original Series. That means when you subscribe now, you'll get episode by episode recaps of all the 1960s style action and intrigue, along with all the jokes and fun that make Greatest Gen and Greatest Trek the number one Star Trek podcasts out there. Subscribe now to Greatest Trek on MaximumFun.org.

[Bria Grant]

This week we're giving out tips on a reader focus. How do you beat distraction long enough to get some reading done? Can you trick or teach yourself to focus on a book? We are getting into it. All right, let's dive right in. Bria, do you especially right now, Again, we've, we've talked, we've done a couple episodes that are sort of similar to this in the past. Right now in 2025, are you struggling with focusing on reading so much?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I am struggling a lot with focus these days. Like way, way more than I used to. Some days it's really bad and just like sitting down to read it all can be a real struggle for me. I mean, I think any woman my age can, can. I mean, there's a lot of reasons people struggle to do this, but I think I'm just developing like due to the hormone changes in my body, I am developing, developing a lot of ADHD symptoms. I don't know if I have the actual thing. I haven't been tested, but anyone who has to work with me has noticed definite changes in me. And so yeah, it's affected like everything in my life. But reading for sure, like I'm having a lot of trouble sitting down and just like sitting down and reading the afternoon just seems like impossible to Me. So definitely you asked me five years ago, and I would not have had the same problem. But now, definitely in the midst of figuring this out. So I'm glad we're doing this episode. What about you?

[Bria Grant]

I hate to say, folks, not as much as I used to. It just clicked for me right now. Remember back like the start of summer where I was like, wow, I'm finally reading a ton again. That's around the exact same time where I got off social media. I just connected those two things right now, here in this moment. I hate to say it, but it's true. Being off your phone is good. I have been off. I am under contract for two books right now. I am writing my first novel and my next nonfiction books. And to facilitate that, I've never been on contract for two books at the same time before. So I was like, all right, I'm going to get off social media to focus on writing it. Turns out it's great. It really helps. But even with that, I do struggle sometimes, I think. Right. Like you said, I think everybody does. It happens the most when I'm stressed. Again, being under contract for two books will do that to you. What I think happens is that sometimes the book is just not strong enough to get my mind to stop thinking about whatever was stressing me out. And my brain is like, we need some. It's like when you're. When you're having a bad day and you're like, a beer is not strong enough. I need a shot. My brain is like, we need something more powerful. Give us the phone. Give us the phone. The phone is more powerful than the thoughts in your brain. And that's what happens sometimes. The problem is when you're not on social media, I don't have a lot to scroll, so I'm like, what if I do a word game? What if I look at the news? Which makes me. Makes. Makes the whole cycle worse. All right, so what. What are your tips for this? I just saw your first one and it's already making me laugh.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Just take your phone. Take your phone, walk to the ocean, throw it directly and directly deposit phone into ocean. Never look back. Walk away, walk away.

[Bria Grant]

I mean, I wish this wasn't true, but it is. And no, it is.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Here's the thing. It's not like we're. Every scientific research is like, phones are bad. Oh, my God. Social media bad. Like, we are all. And then we all are like, no, no, I am a person who can deal with it. Like, no, I'm not. Yeah, it's like, none of us are strong enough.

[Bria Grant]

Boromir tries to take the ring from Frodo. Like, no, dude, you are not strong enough for this. No one's strong enough.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Strong enough. It's. We are all. It's designed to us up guys. Even because we can't throw our phones into the ocean.

[Bria Grant]

Even Frodo could not deal with the ring for forever. You are not Frodo. We are all Boromir.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I am considering turning off the notifications on my phone, which a lot of people I know in this episode.

[Bria Grant]

Adam makes fun of me because I have my phone on do not disturb 24 hours a day.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I should have that.

[Adam Sokol]

It is.

[Bria Grant]

It is a life changer, I will say.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. But I end up. Yeah, especially well right now. I'm just like, you know, I'm dealing with a lot of, like, production stuff. So it's just. You can kind of need to be able to answer.

[Bria Grant]

You can set it to certain people. I have my phone. I have a short list of people that are. That can get through DNF or Do not Disturb. So it's you, it's my agent, it's my therapist, it's hwb. It's some of my other really close friends. Like, so when I know that means when I know I get a text, it's something important, everything else gets okay. Is dnd baby.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I should do that. Okay, all right. Well, maybe that will be my first one. I will say the one thing I try to do is I try to put my phone out of reach. Like, it's so weird how lazy I can be. But if I just go put the phone, like, slightly out of reach it, because otherwise I'll be reading and all of a sudden, like, when did I.

[Bria Grant]

Pick up my phone?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Like, suddenly I'm looking at the phone and I'm like, I'm looking at Instagram. But I was just reading a book, and I don't know when that happened, but if I just scoot that phone slightly forward, little bit, a little bit.

[Bria Grant]

Out of reach, beyond my scratchers, and just push it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, yeah. The same with, like, you know, they say to do that in the morning too. Like, to. First thing you do isn't open up your phone and, like, start looking at social media, because I can really lay in bed for an hour in the morning looking at nothing.

[Bria Grant]

I've actually had to start looking at nothing because I will. I'll be like, oh, my God, I got up an hour ago and I'm just looking at crap.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And by the way, the blocks are not working anymore. My, my brain doesn't even notice the blocks anymore. So I have to physically do something like that. What is your first Besides leaving social media, which honestly sounds great.

[Bria Grant]

Phone stuff aside, something that has been helping me is that I just let my brain have whatever it's craving that isn't phone. Phones isn't phone. It was craving phone. Stay away from phone. But if I'm binging a show or like I'm into a particular video game, that's all I want to do. I just let myself because I don't want reading to feel like a chore. I never want to be like slapping myself on the wrist and be like, no, got it. Time for reading. And this might not work for everyone, but for me after a while my brain will get sick of the thing or I will get or I will get used to it enough that I won't be craving it anymore or I'll finish it. Like I just re watched all of somebody somewhere which was one of my favorite shows from last year. And then after Jeff Hiller won the Emmy for it, I, I kept thinking about it and I was like it, I really want to watch the show and I just really wanted to watch it. And so instead of reading, I just binged the whole show and I just let myself have it. And then afterwards my brain was like, oh great, okay we're done. And then I wanted to read again and and I'll get my focus back. Also happened when I played played Tiny Bookshop, which we're going to talk about at some point in the future on the show. I really just wanted to play it and I for a week I let my myself obsessively play it and then I beat it and then I was done. I haven't thought about it since except when we're going to talk about it for the show. Once this happens, my brain is like, we're done with this other thing. You know, it be really great a book. So lean in. Don't, don't I I, I, I don't want people to treat reading like it is vegetables, you know, and force yourself to because that's just one way ticket to slump town, baby. What's your next focus tip?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I give myself a goal and it's short these days. It's short. It's 20 minutes. It's like get to a certain page number or for like me because I'm an e reader. Like a percentage is usually helpful or an hour number. I've also found that weirdly turning off the chapter I Love that. Like, five minutes to complete the chapter, but then I focus on it. So I find that if I just turn that off, so I don't know how long the chapter is going to be is actually sort of helpful. And then when I reach that goal, I get up and I walk around and I make a snack and I do something to reward myself for reading that long. I do like, a little, like, okay, take a little break. You don't have to, like, plow through more. Like, you can just. I mean, especially because we have. We actually have assigned books now, Mallory and I, because we do a second show and we have to read those books, whereas normally on the show, there's not books we have to read. I mean, we're gonna read the. I'm gonna read the book club book, obviously, but I actually think. I think the glassers would forgive me if I didn't read it. If I started it and was like, not for me, glasswares wouldn't care. But we. We have to talk about the reading smut book. So there are days where I'm like, okay, you have to read today for, like, four hours, which is really hard for me these days. So, yeah, doing like, a timed. A short amount of time, get to a certain page number, percentage number, time number. And then knowing that at the end of that, I can go and take a walk. I can look at my phone, I can do whatever. Like, a little bit of, like, just, like, forcing myself to, like, get through a certain amount. And then I find once I'm there for a little bit, it's so much easier.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You know, it's just those first. It's like when you go to, like.

[Bria Grant]

And you're like, the hardest part is getting to the gym. And then when you're there, you're like, oh, that's right.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is great. The hardest part is putting on your gym clothes. I find.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, have they invented a sports bra that doesn't feel like you're crawling into a. Like you're spelunking underground?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I know. And at the gym, I just want to wear, like, a trash bag. And my gym. Everyone is dressed so well. Like, it's like, where do you. And I'm like, I want to wear some. I just want to wear nothing. I want to wear a trap.

[Bria Grant]

I wear a 2 XL Slayer shirt that looks like a 10.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Nice.

[Bria Grant]

And that's where I. It's great.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. What's your next reading tip?

[Bria Grant]

I do a similar chunk method, but I do it for a different reason. So I'm like, All right, Mallory. Having a hard time focusing? Just read a little. One little chunk. We love a manageable chunk on this show. And like I said, usually when I do that, I want to read more. The reason why it's important for me is it because reading is like any other habit. If you are. If you keep it up even a little bit, you will have an easier time when you are in the mood to read. Like, it's. It's like anything else. It's easiest when you're really in the swing of it. It's hard. Like we just said, it's the hardest part of working out is just going to the gym. But if you're just in the habit of it, you're. You'll start to do it without even thinking about it. But reading, I mean, it is a physical activity. Your eyes are used to the motion. Your brain gets used to it. You know where to fit in your schedule. But if you go a long time without it, it can take a little while to build that habit back up. So if I'm going through a period of time where, you know, I want to. I want to binge a TV show or I'm really busy or I'm really stressed, I just don't have the time to read. I will try to read just a little bit, just to keep my brain in. In the motion of it. It's like squats, you know, if I. I haven't talked about this online, but I went through a really long time. I went through about six months where I was not lifting because I. I was having a hard time with my mental health. I didn't like my gym. It's really hard because the first couple of times you go squat, your quads feel like they're dying, and you're not. You're not in the habit of it. But then when you. When you. Your body gets used to it again, your body's like, oh, okay, cool. I. I'm not going to be sore. I'm used to this. And reading is the same thing. It is a physical motion with your eyes, unless you are an audiobook reader. But keeping up those habits, I think, is really important. All right, what's your last tip?

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is my last time. This is gonna sound so obvious, but, like, make sure you like what you're reading.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Look. And you're looking forward to it. You're thinking about it. Like that Best of All Worlds book that I read. I really was, like, thinking about it during the day. I kept like, being like, wow, I wonder what's Happening. What happened to those guys?

[Bria Grant]

Horny teenager. What is he up to?

[Mallory O'Meara]

What's gonna happen to him? And I find that I really am struggling when what I'm reading is so. So. Because I'm not excited to pick it up. Yeah, I love reading comics. Comic books. Comic books and graphic novels. That's the chocolate cake of the reading world. To me, that is, like. That is a little delight. That is a little, like, oh, what a nice little piece of. Piece of chocolate. Like. And so for me, I can open up a comic book, and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna be. This is exciting. And I know that if I'm. If I want to read, that's something I can always sit down and start reading, and I'm gonna really enjoy that. Also, they're usually physical, which helps. Like, I buy a lot of physical comic books. So as an e Reader, sometimes I'm like, I'm tired of looking at screens all day.

[Bria Grant]

Ye.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Give me a nice comic book where it's like, I'm opening it, I'm turning it. It's very colorful.

[Bria Grant]

Like, it's on your coffee table. It's, like, drawing your eye.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So, like, looking forward to what you're reading and, like, that, you know, doesn't always happen. Sometimes you have to read stuff you don't want to read or whatever. But, like, if you are trying to focus and trying to improve your reading life and you find that you can't focus, like, maybe it is the book, maybe it's not you. So, like, don't take. Don't internalize all the blame. Like, blame the book. Maybe it's a shitty fucking book. Get it out of here.

[Bria Grant]

Get out of here. Bria's just kicking Drop. Kicking a book out her front door.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And what's your last one?

[Bria Grant]

All right, so I. I loved a timed reading sprint, but I want to tell folks to get a little creative with it. Like, you can set a timer on your phone, which sometimes works. There's also a bunch of YouTube ambiance videos, which, you know, I love, but they. A lot of them have. They're timed for Pomodoros, which is the Pomodoro method is working or reading for 25 minutes, and then you take a short break, usually like, five minutes. And there are really nice, fun, like, you know, magical fairy forest or whatever the. But it's timed for pomodoro, so every 25 minutes, a little noise will sound. So I like. That's really fun. Personally, I use my record player because one side of a record is only like 10 to 20 minutes. So I'll be like, all right, just focus on reading until you get it. Have to get up to flip the record. And usually again, like we said, I want to keep reading. I buy a lot of old used movie score records for this because they're perfect for reading. But again, it's a perfect amount of time. Like, I'll be like, right before I go to bed, I'll throw a record on. I'll just read for at least one side of a record. And it's really fun because I love records. I love picking a record out to match it for the book. And it like, it'll trick me into getting into the mood for reading to the into the mood. I also before we go, I know that a lot of our listeners have adhd. We talked about it a little bit at the top of the show. I know that there are ADHD brains work very differently. There's different things that work for them. If you have ADHD and you have tips about reading focus, please write in and tell us. I know picking up a book at all is hard for people with it. I am dating somebody who has ADHD and I do a lot of research about it for that reason. The things that I can recommend as someone who has never experienced it but is around someone who has it quite a bit. Same thing I was talking about earlier. Make it a habit. If your schedule allows, try reading at the same time in the same place every day for 10 minutes, 20 minutes. Set a reminder in your phone, on your calendar for a specific time you know you're going to be free during the day. Like I said, right before bed or right when you wake up. But if you, I, I, I'm, again, I'm saying this as someone who does not have adhd, my brain is, is, is not typical in some other ways. But I, this is, this is something I do not have. So if you have hot ADHD reading tips, please write in and tell us about it. We'd love to hear them.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, let us know.

[Bria Grant]

You can send those tips or your thoughts on reading Focused reading glasses podcast gmail.com before we talk to Adam Soal about his debut novel. This is a really great interview. It's about his book. But also I asked Adam about focusing when you're on reading when you're a and so if you are a person who has children, who has a new baby and you're listening to this episode and you're like, oh, this is not for me. I have a small child that I Have to take care of. Adam's got you covered. This interview is excellent. Check it out. But first, we're going to take a quick break.

[Jesse Thorn]

Hey, gang, it's Jesse Thorne, host of Bullseye with Jesse Thorne. We are ringing in 25 years of bullseye this fall. That's right, listener, 25 years. I started the show in my dorm room at UC Santa Cruz. What does that mean for you? Well, we'll have a whole month of special shows, new and old. For one thing, we are putting on live shows in Los Angeles, New York, and Santa Cruz. Got guests like Adam Scott, Roy Wood Jr. And Rebecca Sugar, just to name a few. And on October 9, I will interview 25 people in a row. You can watch that live and streaming on our YouTube channel. I hope you'll plan on celebrating with us. That's maximumfun.org events. Thanks.

[Bria Grant]

So here we are with Reading Glasses, hall of famer, extremely longtime friend of the show, past guest of the show, now coming back to Reading Glasses as a debut author, Adam Sokol. Adam, thank you so much for coming back on the show.

[Adam Sokol]

Thank you for having me back. I gotta tell you, I have been out of the quote, unquote book world for a few years.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, you were just only getting married, having a baby, you know, doing huge life things. The book world's always here.

[Adam Sokol]

But I gotta tell you, I listen. Like, even though I'm no longer in the book world, I listen to you and Bria literally every single week.

[Bria Grant]

We do miss. We were just saying the other day how much we missed listening to your show. We. We miss. We miss you being a bookish podcaster.

[Adam Sokol]

Listen, I. I miss. I miss being a bookish podcaster. I'm sure someday I will get corralled back into it, but I listen to you guys every single week. I literally this morning, while hanging out with my baby, was listening to your most recent episode.

[Bria Grant]

It's gonna be a very bookish baby.

[Adam Sokol]

Oh, my God. We listen. I. The majority of the books, if you use the video for this, people will see, but the majority of the books around me are actually. They're books for Ren. My daughter, she. I'm a huge book nerd. My partner is a gigantic book nerd. This child has no choice.

[Bria Grant]

Yay. Okay, well, let's get into it. So what are you. Before we get into your new book, what are you reading right now? And what is Wren reading?

[Adam Sokol]

Thank you. Wonderful question. Okay, so Ren is very, very big into anti racist baby. She loves anti racist.

[Bria Grant]

We love an anti racist baby.

[Adam Sokol]

We love an anti racist baby. We honestly, she will pay attention to anything we got. When you get a baby, people give you books for like newborns to when they're like five or six. So every once in a while I'll try to read her a book that's like, you know, one of the, like I am, you know, like I am Dr. Martin Luther King or I am Jim Henson and like the ones by like Brad Meltzer and they're so cute. But after like three pages she's like, I don't know. So I will say that the one that she's most obsessed with is the classic Sesame Street. There's a monster at the end of this book.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, she's got great taste already.

[Adam Sokol]

Listen. Oh yeah, I listen. I do the whole Grover voice. It hurts every time, but it's so great, guys. Being a dad is the best. Okay, so what I'm reading, I couldn't just do one. I used to do this for a living, so I brought four. I'll go quick. I have.

[Bria Grant]

I believe it. You're literally a pro. I'm not, not worried.

[Adam Sokol]

Okay, well, so the, the, the reason being there's two that I feel like are so buzzy and so bookish and I'm pretty sure I've heard you guys talk about bought one, if not both, but Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, the new Ve Schwab Big Buzzer.

[Bria Grant]

Glasser book right now.

[Adam Sokol]

Big. Exactly. Big, big Buzzy Glasser book.

[Bria Grant]

It's just.

[Adam Sokol]

She's one of the authors. I'll get to some others later that like when. When ve releases a book, I'm gonna read it, so I'm not gonna talk about it. Honestly, I went into it knowing nothing about it and then the actual style of book it is. I was like, oh, it's a. That kind of book. That's so fun. And I didn't.

[Bria Grant]

I love when you do. I love doing that. Just jumping right into a book.

[Adam Sokol]

Fantastic. I've heard you talk about that many, many times. And I feel the same way. The other book that is big and buzzy but I loved is My Friends by Frederik Bachman.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh yeah.

[Bria Grant]

Another exciting. Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

People.

[Adam Sokol]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

Ultimate. It's like that and the Wilderness by Angela Flournoy are like the big friendship books of the year.

[Adam Sokol]

Yeah. It is so like super briefly. It's a story about a world famous artist, but it's more so about the group of friends that this world famous artist had growing up and how they're all interchangeable. And like there are these little stories that you jump back and forth to. And it's the story of this young woman who is basically gifted this world famous artist's most famous painting at the very beginning of the book by his friend after this artist dies. It's not a spoiler. That happens in like the second chapter. And she more or less is like, what the hell would you want me to do? Like, what do you want me to do with this painting? People are gonna think I stole it. And so she goes on this journey with this older friend and.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, I love that. I love that structure of a book. Yeah.

[Adam Sokol]

And like the way that Fredrik Backman writes, like there's just as a. Hold on, let me get smarmy as a writer.

[Bria Grant]

Hey.

[Adam Sokol]

Oh, it feels good though.

[Bria Grant]

Feels good, right?

[Adam Sokol]

Feels so good.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Adam Sokol]

But Frederik Backman writes these lines and these little things that make me want to stop listening and go start writing. Like he.

[Bria Grant]

That's the best.

[Adam Sokol]

There's this thing. Yeah, there's this thing that all the friends say to each other where they say I love you and I believe in you. And I don't want to like give anything away, but it's basically one of the characters grew up in all these different foster homes and literally had never had anyone say I love you to them. But the biggest thing that one of their friends said to them was I believe in you. And so it's just like it all gets tied in. So anyway, there's so many lines like that. Highly recommend my friends. And then the other two really quickly. The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka. This came out in 2022. Super short.

[Bria Grant]

I think I can see this cover in my brain.

[Adam Sokol]

Blue, blue. And there's people swimming in, like back and forth. It was super quick. I read it. I was just on a work trip and yesterday I was coming home from Minneapolis and I literally read the entire thing on the book. So we're on the plains of.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, you do the thing that I do. You say you use the word book for other things.

[Adam Sokol]

Yeah, exactly. Oh my God.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, I did.

[Adam Sokol]

Yes. I read this entire book on the plane that I was traveling on. The Swimmers is. The first half of it is a story about how when you are a member of a pool, like a community pool, there's all of these people that you really only know when they're in the water or maybe in the locker room. Not so different than going to like a local gym or things like that. But it starts with all these different people, like just their transient connections to one another. But one of the people at the point pool is this older woman named Julie who has what they assume is Alzheimer's. And like she's really only herself when she's in the pool. And halfway through the book, there's really no way to not talk about this. It's on the back. Like the pool ends up closing and then it's the. The book transitions to just focusing on Julie and her life as her family is forced to put her in sort of like a long term care facility and then what that means for them. So it's. It's very sad. It is very reflective, which is the types of books I tend to read. But it's really, really quick. I highly recommend it. That's the Swimmers. And then the other one is when the Cranes Fly south by Lisa Ridzen, which is originally, I think it was written in Swedish and then translated and I don't have the translation. The person who did the translating on me, I'll send that to you after because I know it's important to give those people. I'll figure it out as well.

[Bria Grant]

We'll put in the show notes.

[Adam Sokol]

Yeah, I promise. I am the happiest I've ever been in my life. But this is also about an older person who is at the end of their lives. I didn't even realize.

[Bria Grant]

Don't worry, we will not be calling any hotlines for Adam. We know. But this is the kind of books you like.

[Adam Sokol]

These are the absolute types of books I like when I was going through my.

[Bria Grant]

You love a reflective book.

[Adam Sokol]

I adore a reflective book. And this is one about an older gentleman in Sweden as he's at the end of his life, he's sort of living on his own and his son is basically trying to tell him he has this dog and he doesn't want to give up this dog, but he can't really take care of it anymore. And it's just this story about this older gentleman and his son trying to come to terms with, like, their own relationship at the end of this older gentleman's life. It is super reflective. It involves people going on long walks. Very much my stuff. So, so good. Yeah. So when the Cranes Fly south and the Swimmers. If you need a book to feel reflective and maybe a little moody as our days get shorter here. Beautiful Chef's kiss. Those are both beautiful.

[Bria Grant]

All right, well, speaking of books about somebody's incredible life, you want to tell us about your new book?

[Adam Sokol]

I would love to. Mallory, thank you. And thank you for letting me come on. And.

[Bria Grant]

So exciting. Oh, my God, what a journey.

[Adam Sokol]

So I wrote a book called the Ballad of Bonaventure Palmier. And speaking of journeys, I wrote this at the end of the pandemic. And I am very comfortable sharing all of these different things with people because it's the reason I wrote the book. I was realizing at the end of the pandemic that I needed to end a 10 year relationship, and I basically needed to become a new version of myself if I was ever going to find happiness. I had just realized I was not happy. People who may be longtime listeners to this show and the professional book nerds that I used to be on may know that was also when I left Overdrive. I literally left my job.

[Bria Grant]

I mean, you changed your whole. It was Etch A Sketch, end of your, end of your life.

[Adam Sokol]

Life, structure, everything changed. And so I poured all of the emotions I was feeling into this book. And so it is the story of, and you're not gonna believe it, an.

[Bria Grant]

Older man who is reflecting back on his life.

[Adam Sokol]

Exactly. So it is the story of an older man who. It's magical realism. He is what's known as a clothier, or sort of like a tailor, if you want to think about it in more like American terms. But he creates clothes for other people. And there's some magic that he puts into these clothes so that they never tear, they never rip, they never fade. And people don't really know that he's magic. It's kind of a family secret. Until one day, this woman, whose name is Esme, comes into his life, walks into his shop and says, my name is Madame Esmeralda, and I'm about to change your life. And she is the leader of this mysterious, magical traveling circus, which I know you love.

[Bria Grant]

So I was so, so excited to read it in this book. Love a circus book.

[Adam Sokol]

Love a circus book. I don't even know if you remember this, but a long, long time ago, I was on Twitter after I had read, like, the thing is called Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foodi. And I read this book and it was about a circus. And I remember, like, just tweeting at the time when we all still tweeted. I was like, rip, there should be. Yeah, Rip. I was like, there should be more books about circuses. And I think you literally responded to me like, so write one. And I. I did. So this. So basically the. The main character's name is Bonaventure Palmier. And after a series of tragic things that I will not share here, he and his grandson end up joining this circus. And it is a Book about found family, a book about overcoming tragedies. And I purposely did something that I've seen a few other books do, but it doesn't happen often enough for me, is you step away from the main story a lot so that other characters can tell, like, fairy tales and fables. My favorite book of all time is the Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. And she does this. And I heard Sarah Gailey one time say, like, Aaron just trusts the reader, that, like, this is gonna pay off. Just stick with me. And so that's what I did. I took this book and I took it and I was like, okay, how can I tell a story about an old man going on a journey and being reflective while also finding a way to turn into, like, a found family story that gives space for all these other little, like, nuanced fairy tales that I always wanted to tell? So that's what it is. It's a found family, slow burning, peculiar little book that is my entire heart. And yeah, it's been. I've had people say to me, like, this is one of those books that I'm always looking for that I can never find enough of. And that is like the biggest compliment.

[Bria Grant]

This book is Glasser Nip for sure. There's so much in there that it's just like readers are looking for.

[Adam Sokol]

Yeah, I. I'm gonna try not to get super sappy on here, but it means a lot to me. For no one will ever know this Mallory. Well, now they're gonna know because they're gonna hear this. Mallory was the first person I got it professionally edited. And then Mallory was the literal first person that read this book in its entirety as a PDF.

[Bria Grant]

Honored. It is. But it was such a fun experience reading it because when your friend writes a book, you get to see, you're like, oh, here's all the things that they love woven together into this one thing. And it was a really beautiful experience.

[Adam Sokol]

Well, thank you. I think the interesting thing about releasing this book now, I self published it, which we can only get to if we want to talk about it. I know you guys have done multiple episodes on that, but, like, the interesting thing about it is all of my family knew I had written this book, but none of them really read it as like this big honking PDF or anything. And so having my family members read it, who now know everything I went through in life and, like, I was super private back then, it was kind of a surprise to them. All the things that happened, they're just like, oh, my God, this was Just all in your head, this whole. How did you do this? I was like, I think that's every author. I just think that's every author. But yeah, it's. It's been so fun. It's been such a cool experience. And yeah, I have a whole ass book out in the world, and now I want to, like, keep writing, and I'm just good.

[Bria Grant]

That makes me happy. Oh, my gosh. Okay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

All right.

[Bria Grant]

So this episode is all about tips for improving focus when you're trying to read and you happen to be a new dad. How. And we, you know, we've touched on. On this a little bit, but neither Bria and I are our parents. How did becoming a dad change your reading life?

[Adam Sokol]

So it. Yes, it did. Yes. And I. So one of the things is I no longer have those, like, slow morning. Slow mornings during the weekends or, like, afternoons. Oh, yeah.

[Bria Grant]

Lazy Sunday mornings. Yeah.

[Adam Sokol]

Doesn't exist anymore. Which is okay. Like, it's. But I'm finding that there's a few things. One, if I'm reading a book that requires, like, really deep focus or something that you can't really read, like, four pages of and then come back to, those have just become all audiobooks because I can. I can sit with Ren while she's about to take a nap or in the middle of the night when she's up like four times like she was last night. And I can have one earbud in while she's drifting off, and I can listen. So that's. That's one thing is just like knowing that I'm not gonna get those long chunks. So that's one. And then the other thing is like, learning how to read one handed because.

[Bria Grant]

You'Re normally holding actually hot parent tip. Hot parent reading.

[Adam Sokol]

Oh, my God. Like, I. I have steered away from hardcover books because they're too heavy. They're too heavy. I'm holding it in one book in one hand. I'm probably gonna talk about Libby a few times here because I obviously worked at Overdrive and they don't pay me anymore, but I still use the app every day. And, like, if I'm reading an ebook, I can. If people are listening to this, I'm using my hand to mimic swiping through a book on what with one. So that is one thing. But it's. Yeah, but it's more so just like finding. Finding small pockets of time to read as opposed to knowing, like, okay, this Saturday is reserved for a four hour reading block, because that's just not gonna happen.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. Yeah. And that's okay. I mean, but that's. That's what you do. So you audiobooks small chunks. Do you have any other tips for parents, especially brand new parents, on focusing on reading, maybe not bothering to focus on reading for a while? Like, how do you. How do you even get to the point where you're picking up a book? Yeah.

[Adam Sokol]

So something that took my partner and I. Alex. Their name is Alex. I could just say her name. Her name was Alex. Alex. It took Alex and I a long time to figure out is like, there are still lots of times to read. Like Ren goes to bed. By the time she's taken a bath and had a bottle, it's still only like 7:30 because she's a baby. Babies go to bed so early. So there's lots of time at night where we can still read. And I will say there are some nights where like, if it's been a really hard whether, like I've had a tough workday and run's just been like a lot for us. We found ourselves just like sometimes zoning out and doom scrolling on our phone and it's just like, why are you doing that?

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, what are you doing?

[Adam Sokol]

Why are we doing that? So I have found, and this is true for with work, but specifically for. For reading is like if I'm especially. I'm reading a physical book, like just throw my. Throw my phone in another room. Just like, like chuck it in the kitchen or put it upstairs. I don't need it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Like I.

[Adam Sokol]

No one's gonna text me at nine o' clock at night. You know, we don't go to bed till like 10, 10 30. So in the evening.

[Bria Grant]

Except when I texted you really late last night.

[Adam Sokol]

That's true. It's okay. You know what? No, I feel like when you and I text each other because you do the smart thing, which is keep all your notifications off.

[Bria Grant]

All my phone is on do not disturb 24 7.

[Adam Sokol]

Yeah. So I know that if I text Mallory, it's like ships in a night. I'm gonna get a response like sometime in the next 10 hours. But I don't know when it's gonna be and that's fine. So yeah, that is one thing. A lot of audiobooks. But really it's just understanding like Ren takes multiple naps and if like I can read during that or for me, I'm a still distance runner, so I can listen to audiobooks while I'm running.

[Bria Grant]

Oh yeah, there you go.

[Adam Sokol]

Yeah, so it's more so just time management, which you get really used to for sure, when you have a baby.

[Bria Grant]

So you're using. You're using your earbuds for audiobooks. You're using an e reader. Are there any other apps or tech that you use to help your focus? Are you. Are there apps you wish existed for parents? Or, like, what kind of E reader are you using? Yeah.

[Adam Sokol]

Okay. I thought long and hard about this, and I'm actually. I want to. I'm excited to listen to the rest of this episode because I want to hear what you guys talk about. I will say, like, again, not a promotion for them anymore because I don't work there. But, like, Libby is really great for this because I can read books offline and I can, like, I can open up a book, put my phone on airplane mode. This is honestly the biggest thing I recommend to people is, like, putting my phone on airplane mode and disconnecting from the Internet, because then I'm not going to scroll away from the app that I'm reading on. So if I'm honestly.

[Bria Grant]

This is. I don't have my slide. Wait, no. Oh, yes, I do.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Hold on.

[Adam Sokol]

Oh, yes, yes.

[Bria Grant]

Hot book tip. Hot book tip from.

[Adam Sokol]

Oh, my God.

[Bria Grant]

Airplane mode. So smart.

[Adam Sokol]

I cannot tell you how long I have listened to the show and being.

[Bria Grant]

Like, you got your own slide Whistle, my friend.

[Adam Sokol]

I got my own slide. That was so much, putting my phone on airplane mode and then just making sure it's not connected to the Internet. Because I am the type of person where if I get a notification, I'm like, go clear that notification.

[Bria Grant]

And then I have the same way. That's why I keep it on do not disturb all the time. Because my brain is like, I have to take care of everything at once right now.

[Adam Sokol]

Yeah. So that is. That's been. Honestly, the biggest thing for me is, like, if it's on airplane mode, I'm just gonna actually read my book and then just. Libby. Like, the things like, you can read offline if you're listening to an audiobook. And I always use the timer when I'm going. Like, my partner and I both. We use the timer at bedtime, where it's like, I'm gonna fall asleep in 20 minutes, and I don't want to have to scroll back three hours from the last spot I was at. So that's been really, really good. But like, that, if I had one tip I would give people is like, if you're reading a Kindle book, if you're reading anything virtually on your phone or device that is connected to other things that notify you disconnect from the Internet because the book's already there. It's already downloaded.

[Bria Grant]

That is such a great tip. All right, so for all the writer parents out there, how do you focus on creativity with a kid in the house?

[Adam Sokol]

So I got a huge piece of advice from my two best friends, live in San Francisco and California, and they both. One of them. Their family owns, like, a travel agency that he. Now, one of them runs. And his biggest advice for me before Ren arrived was, like, the things that you love doing, keep doing them. With Wren, she came into our life, not the other way around. And I love that.

[Bria Grant]

Don't let that baby boss you around.

[Adam Sokol]

Yeah, she's just a silly baby. What does she know?

[Bria Grant]

She can't do anything.

[Adam Sokol]

She can't do anything. No. But, like, for us, the core thing he was talking about was, like, travel. Take this little potato with you everywhere. And so we did that, and, like, Ren is six months old. We took her to Chicago to meet some family. But when we were there, we went to the Chicago Institute of Art, because my favorite painting that I've never gotten to see in person is there by Georges Seurat. It's this painting that means a lot to me, and it sparked a ton of inspiration for me.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, hey.

[Adam Sokol]

The English version is Sundays in the Park, I believe is the English version that's in French. But it became, like, this painting became a musical by Stephen Sondheim called Sundays in the park with George that I listened to religiously while writing my book. And so I got to hold my daughter while looking at this painting.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, that's so magical.

[Adam Sokol]

Oh, it was the best. I cried so hard. But things, like, we took her to St. Louis to meet some friends as well on a plane trip. And, like, just going places with her has been really big prioritizing for me. My mental health is so directly tied to my physical health.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Adam Sokol]

And. Yeah. So I. Yeah. Yeah. That sucks. It's so frustrating when.

[Bria Grant]

You know. But I love talking to you because you were also. You were part of the special subset of readers that are also jocks, so. Yes.

[Adam Sokol]

Oh, my.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. I.

[Adam Sokol]

Okay. For what it's worth, to prove that, I was listening to your most recent episode. I'm also a theater nerd, so I am Mallory Bria.

[Bria Grant]

I love that, though. But, you know. You know, that, like, that weird place of, like, oh, you are so bookish. But also, you love. You know, you love sports, you love moving your body.

[Adam Sokol]

The amount of time I spend, if I'm not listening to an audiobook that I spend listening to, like, baseball or football podcasts. In fact, Alex was, like, listening to me do a fantasy football draft a couple, like, two weeks ago. And she's like, the jock version of you never comes out. And so it was hysterical to hear you just, like, talk.

[Bria Grant]

Few the proud, the reader jocks.

[Adam Sokol]

Exactly. But with that in mind, like, to keep my creativity flowing, it's like, okay, I know I feel better if I run. So I. You just figure it out. And I get up at like, five in the morning now to go run. So going to different places and prioritizing the things that make me want to write, that make me want to still feel inspired and like, that could even be, you know, I start where I work remote. I work from home for this tech company, but I'll sit down on my computer 15 minutes earlier than I would need to, and I'll just do like a 15 minute writing sprint for myself. It has nothing to do with anything else I'm doing. Yeah. So that's. That's been really huge. And then, like, we. The most inspiration I ever feel is when we go on big trips to, like, Europe. And so. So we're going next June. We're gonna spend all of next June in Madrid because Alex, she's a floral. She's a floral designer now. She's a florist. She found this floral design program in Madrid that she's gonna do. And like, we just. We're just gonna fit. I think, like, the biggest thing I could tell some people who are writers and are trying to be creative while having parents is like, this is gonna sound like tough love, but just figure it out. Like, find time to do things. Because kids are amazing and they're a lot, but also, like, they're really malleable and they're like, you can make us know what life's supposed to be. Yeah. So it's just like. Yeah, that would be. The thing I would just say is, like, whatever inspires you, keep doing it. You might have to do it at 5 in the morning. Keep doing it because it's really important.

[Bria Grant]

I love it. All right. So, Adam, it's been quite a while since we checked in on your wheelhouse. What is it right now? Like, you've gone through all these big life changes. You're a parent, you're an author. Like, where is. What is your wheelhouse currently?

[Adam Sokol]

Yeah, so it's shifted just a little bit. I was actually thinking about again, like, one of the recent episodes, depending on when this comes out, about, like, aging up your. Your reading List that you guys talked.

[Bria Grant]

About because you were someone who. I used to get a lot of YA horror recommendations from you specifically.

[Adam Sokol]

Okay, so I do still love a YA horror for sure. That is still on my list. But I'm more. But if we're gonna talk about horror, I'm more so like Gothic house centric, witchy, or anything written by Rachel Harrison or Alexis Henderson. Those are gonna agree. But as a whole, God, I thought about this more than any other question.

[Bria Grant]

I love it.

[Adam Sokol]

I still love what I call small stories about big emotions. That's gonna be the way I describe books that I love, I think, until I'm no longer. Yeah, so think like books about families and interpersonal relationships that are fairly confined to just a few people. So like my friends, like I was talking about before, pastoral fiction is how I would describe it. Stories set on like farms and small towns.

[Bria Grant]

Ooh, that's been buzzier and buzzier the past few years.

[Adam Sokol]

Listen, I am a. My one regret about interviewing authors is I never got to interview Wendell Berry, who is like, that would be the person. That is how I discovered pastoral fiction. I would just say, like, Wendell Berry is in my wheelhouse. Magical realism. Of course, it'd be banana pants if I wrote a book like that and didn't read them. People going for long, slow journey on long, slow journeys. Of course, I love an old reflexive person. Always. Always. And then nonfiction about nature and my specific interests, like running comedy or, you know, like movie monsters or old Hollywood, maybe like a stunt woman, for example. You know, things like that. Anything I do legitimately have, you know, I have those authors where any time a book comes out by them, I will. It's the top of my list and I will read it first. And you are absolutely on that list. And you know that.

[Bria Grant]

Thank you.

[Adam Sokol]

Of course. So, yeah, that would be, I think, like so much pressure doing a wheelhouse. I always feel like I'm gonna get off.

[Bria Grant]

This is. I mean, honestly. No, you did a great job. This is an excellent wheelhouse.

[Adam Sokol]

I know, but still, I always feel.

[Bria Grant]

Like I'm missing stuff.

[Adam Sokol]

But that would be my wheel.

[Bria Grant]

All right, so where can readers find you? Where can readers buy the book? Are you doing signed copies? Like, where people. Where can people find you on Instagram? Yes.

[Adam Sokol]

Okay, so I. I mentioned at the beginning I self published this book because I got tired of getting responses to my query letters that said, this is so great, but it doesn't fit into a genre or anything that we can promote. So I had to self publish it. And unfortunately the easiest way to do that is through Amazon. So you can get a paperback or an ebook copy of my book on Amazon. But as of just this week, you can also just go into Libby, search my name, Adam Sokol, and it'll have a little notify button on there. And if you click notify, what it does is that basically sends recommendation requests to your library. So if you don't want to support Amazon, which I totally get, you can go right into Libby. You can get them.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, you know, the glasses are experts at this.

[Adam Sokol]

I know they are. I know I was. It's a great point. I just want to make sure everyone else knows that I'm on Instagram and tick tock. You can just search for my name. And if you want to give me a follow over there, I'm going to be doing some really cool stuff in a few local. I live in Cleveland still, so there's a couple of local bookshops that are gonna have my book in person that I'm very excited about. And I'm gonna go.

[Bria Grant]

I'm so sad. I don't live out there. I want to go see your other events.

[Adam Sokol]

I know. I'm very, very excited. So you can follow me there. But yeah, as much as I would love people to buy physical copies of my book, because I am very proud of the COVID that I had made for it.

[Bria Grant]

It's beautiful.

[Adam Sokol]

Thank you. But as much as I want people to do that, I get the whole Amazon thing because I don't love supporting them either. So just go to Libby and request it from your library. That works for me too.

[Bria Grant]

Beautiful. Adam, thank you so much for coming on the show.

[Adam Sokol]

Thank you for having me back. I miss you guys. It feels. Feels like coming home.

[Bria Grant]

Time to look at some book. Tech advances in bookish technology. This week we're testing out Focus Friend. So this is a free app, although you can buy the pro version. I think it's like 5.99, 3.99 some. It's less than $10. This app was created by Hank Green, meant to help you focus and stay off your phone. So the way this works is you download the app and after you download it, you get a little friend who is a bean you can name with.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Little little feet and little hands.

[Bria Grant]

Very cute. You can name them the bean, whatever you want. Your bean loves to knit, but it can only focus on knitting when you are not on your phone. So you set a timer from five minutes to two hours. That's it. Those like you can't go longer or Shorter. If you pick up your phone before the timer is finished, your bean gets distracted and drops all its stitches. If you stay off your phone the entire time, though, your bean knits socks. And the longer the timer, the more socks that you knit. You can use these socks to buy stuff for your bean's little room. Like plants and rugs and chairs and stu stuff. What do we think of this?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I love this little bean. He's so cute. He is so cute. For my bean, I only used it a few times, but then I used it yesterday for writing. I've been doing some writing stuff done. And I did it for really small amounts, and I did like 35 minutes or something, and then I did, like, 20 minutes. And you can also. When you stop it, when you get through it, it'll say, hey, do you want to have a little break? And you can time your break, and then you can go back. Like, you can do that as well, which I haven't done. I built one window, and I think I bought a rug. No, no, I bought a bookshelf. I bought.

[Bria Grant]

I got a bookshelf.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, yeah. Because the bookshelf is actually cheaper than you think it would be. And I wanted to dress my little bean, but that does cost money. Yeah, like real money, not socks, because socks are currency in this world. It is fun. I have never been into, like, the. You know, the world in which you, like, build you farm. What are those? Like, the farming world?

[Bria Grant]

Like, yeah, like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. The one people, those.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Animal Crossing is when I say I've never been into them, but I can see how they would be fun by playing this, because I'm like, oh, I can add to my little world. My little bean is there waiting for me. And I named him Bean, which I know is really boring because I. I did it right when I logged on. I was like, what? I don't know. He's a bean. But then I was like, I guess. Anyway, everyone else came up with really clever names. Okay.

[Bria Grant]

I have to tell you, but I love it. So my bean is named Ozzy. Oz Bean. But I am very good. So fucking jealous. Guess what hwb's bean is named.

[Mallory O'Meara]

What?

[Bria Grant]

Got Harry Bean Stanton.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, wow, That's a good one.

[Bria Grant]

I was fuming. I was like, oh, that's so good. I should have got that one. I'm so jealous of Harry Bean Stanton. I was like, that is the best.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That's a good one. That's a good one. You can give him a cute name. It's very Cute. He's very nice. And also, I had. I tested out starting the. The timer and then stopping it. And they do ask you. It's not like you pick up your phone and he just stops it, just says, are you sure you want to stop the timer? You know, and then you go, no, I guess go ahead and keep knitting. I found this super helpful.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It made me go, well, I'm not gonna. Because there was like, oh, I should send this one text. And I picked up my phone and it was like, well, you have seven minutes left. And I was like, well, I can wait seven minutes to send a text. Yeah, there's no. It does help. That I really like.

[Bria Grant]

Is it worth it to interrupt this poor little bean?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. And. And I'm trying to get, you know, decorate that room so. Which is the goal for me. But do you love this?

[Bria Grant]

Yes, I will. But also, before I want. I got so jealous of Harry Bean Stanton that we. We spent the whole night coming up with bean names. And I want to give away my two best ones for someone else who can take them is Bina Davis and Bean Latifah. So if anyone wants those, please take them. I'm still really mad that I didn't think of Harry Bean Stanton. All right, so I love this. Please consider me part of Bean Nation. If you watch our Readathon Live check ins. I started using this during the readathon. It was excellent. It's very cute. It's very easy to use. It's completely free. It does not track your data. One thing that really helped me was, like, you, Bria. It shows up on your lock screen. So you can look at your phone and see you got 10 minutes left. And you're like, is it really worth it to bother this poor little bean? This poor little innocent bean who's just trying to. Trying to knit. It's a great deterrent because it really, you know, we're. Our brains are all rotted on there. I'm like, well, my brain's fucked. But am I. Am I gonna bother this little bean? Like, it really externalizes it, which helps a lot. You know, let him knit.

[Mallory O'Meara]

He's so good. He loves knitting.

[Bria Grant]

Ozzy OSB Loves to knit. And I don't want to. I don't want to bother my friend. And this, because I think what happens is picking up our phone is muscle memory at this point. And we all figure sometimes we just forget and we pick it up because we're all addicted to it. And then you see the timer and you're like, oh, My God, I'm so sorry, my little friend. I have tried this with writing and it is really great for that. Obviously, I put this in this episode for a reason. This is a five out of five pages for me. It's free. It really helps you because you can kind of use it with anything. But it's great for reading, it's great for staying off your phone. As someone who's been off my phone for months now, if you're like, oh, I've tagged Mallory on something on Instagram and she didn't see it, that's why. Because I'm not there, baby. I'm hanging out with my Bean. And so I would really. I know a lot of glasses are using this. I would really recommend this. How many? How many are you giving this? 5 out of 5 too.

[Mallory O'Meara]

5 out of 5 out of 5. And like shout out to Hank Green.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, that made.

[Mallory O'Meara]

He made it free, which I appreciate.

[Bria Grant]

Hank Bean.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's very nice. Hank Bean, as we'll call it.

[Bria Grant]

Love it. All right, so if you want us to test out some book tech, you can send your ideas to reading glasses podcast gmail.com or check out our Etsy wish list in the show. Not Notes as always. Want to thank the wonderful mods who run our Discord server and our Facebook group. We, we adore you. Thank you so much for the work that you do. And remember, folks, you want a horror reader sweatshirt. You want to show off your love of spooky reading during spooky season. Now's the time. Check it out. There's a link in the show notes and if you like the show, please, please, please, folks, we are trying to get to 2,000 reviews on Apple Podcasts. If you use Apple Podcasts, get on there. We know you're listening to this and you might be listening to this in your car next time you pick up your phone, which you're going to do very soon because we're all picking up our phones constantly. Open up the mobile app. Give us a five star rating. Write us a nice little review. We've been reading the nice reviews that people have been leaving really warms our hearts. We are trying so hard to get there. Please help us out. You can email us at reading glasses podcast gmail.com. find us on Instagram at Reading Glasses Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Thanks for reading.

[Bria Grant]

Maximum Fun, a worker owned network of.

[Adam Sokol]

Artist owned shows supported directly by you.