Ep 455 - Hot Tips for ADHD Readers + Pirate/Treasure Hunting Rex!

Summary

Reading Glasses, Ep 455 — "Hot Tips for ADHD Readers + Pirate/Treasure Hunting Recs!"
(March 26, 2026)
Hosts: Brea Grant & Mallory O’Meara

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Brea and Mallory dedicate the show to tackling one of their most listener-requested topics: practical tips for ADHD readers. Using audience-sourced advice and real experiences, they break down strategies for staying engaged with books, share how to work with (not against) ADHD brains, and discuss how these methods can be helpful even for non-ADHD readers in our increasingly distracted world. They wrap up with pirate and treasure hunting book recommendations for listeners who want a taste of adventure in their reading lives.

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What Are You Reading? [00:31–05:10]

Brea

• Reads "All Boys Aren’t Blue" by George M. Johnson
  • Selected for the Reading Glasses annual challenge: Read a currently banned book by a living author.
  • "It is a bunch of really beautifully written, like, funny, but poignant essays. I was not prepared for it to be funny and as, like, charming." [00:49, Brea]
  • Explores issues of identity, fitting in, and intersectional experiences as a queer Black man.
  • Brea: "It should be fucking required reading because it's so great." [02:37]

Mallory

• Reads "The Burning Library" by Gilly McMillan
  • Described as a high-octane, code-breaking thriller set in Scotland with murdered authors, secret manuscripts, and competing all-female rival organizations.
  • "It's so thrilling. It's so fun. It's so well written...making my brain fire." [04:19, Mallory]
  • Mallory highlights the immersive detail and cryptographic puzzles that got her out of a reading slump.

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Listener Feedback & Book Time vs Pages [05:10–09:05]

• Sarah (former children’s librarian) notes that reading by time (minutes read), not pages, increases enjoyment and self-identification as readers.
  • "Tracking how long you read is a good thing for your reading life." [05:39, Mallory]
• Emerson (NASA/Blue Origin engineer) shares they designed lunar lander cables while listening to the podcast, and discusses how prosopagnosia (face blindness) impacts character visualization.
  • "I have face blindness and I cannot remember what anyone's face looks like as soon as I'm not with them anymore." [06:22, Emerson]
• Mallory teases a future episode about what readers picture while reading.

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Quick Bookmark: Mallory’s Women’s History Books [08:10–09:05]

• Mallory highlights her body of work focusing on women’s history, name-dropping her books and promising "If you love this loud, fast talking New England girl who swears way too much, there's more of it for you out there." [09:07]

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Featured Topic: Hot Tips for ADHD Readers [12:00–29:49]

Both hosts clarify: Neither is ADHD, so these are real listener-sourced, “tested and tried” tips.

E-Readers, Gamification & Habit Stacking [12:52–15:50]

Avery’s Tips

• "E-Readers forever": Always at hand, enabling micro-readings (e.g., while waiting in line).
• Use features like "minutes left in chapter" for small, achievable goals and gamification: "My ADHD also loves a small achievable goals and B gamification." [13:31, Avery]
• Large fonts (especially while moving).
• Using well-stocked E-readers to switch books instantly keeps momentum up.

Mallory’s anecdote: “I remember that time I went on the date and the guy showed up and was like, wow, the font's real big on your Kobo. And I was like, I'm gonna hit you with my car off.” [13:58, Mallory]

Kira’s Tips

• Task-switching is hard; physically replace TV remotes with books to make reading the easiest option.
• Gamification apps (Storygraph, Pagebound, etc.) help sustain motivation: “Knowing I can make my little streak counter turn orange and I can literally level up like a video game character gets me to listen to or read a chapter…” [15:36, Kira]

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Flexibility, Format-Switching & Reducing Pressure [15:50–17:32]

Bethany’s Tips

• “Sometimes the brain says not today to reading. And I’ve learned to just let it go and find something else to do. Take the pressure off. Pressure makes it worse.” [15:50, Bethany]
• Change formats—audio, print, digital—for novelty or easier focus.
• Use a timer for short reading sprints: “Try to set the timer for five to 10 minutes. To try to read something and if the timer goes off and I'm still not into it, then I put it down later.” [16:48, Bethany]
• Seek novelty: pick new books through the library to satisfy impulse/hyperfixation.
• Pre-spoil: Reading about plot points in advance can make a book feel “safe,” reducing anxiety and encouraging engagement.

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Audiobooks, Speed, and Task Switching [19:02–21:36]

Daphne’s Tips

• Multitask with audiobooks; speed up playback to avoid drifting ("on 1x speed, it just goes too slow and my mind will wander" [19:21]).
• Alternate reading with other hobbies in “small chunks” to prevent boredom.
• "Treat reading a bit like a chore"—sometimes scheduling it as a task can get you over the activation barrier.

Mallory: “Bria and I are the types of people that...get motivated and excited to tick things off...if you’re the same way, this can be really helpful for you.” [21:29, Mallory]

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Novelty, Rituals, and Reducing Distraction [21:43–29:13]

Sarah’s Tips

• Change things up periodically (new locations, treats, coffee shop reading dates).
• Routine can help, but needs to feel fresh.
• Use alarms to trigger reading time and “put your phone across the room.”

Adriana’s Tips

• Read multiple books at once in different formats (e.g., e-book at night, audio for chores).
• Keep book choices short to avoid guilt about slow progress.
• Noise-canceling headphones reduce distractions.
• Seek fast-paced books: “It's too easy to zone out if you feel like your brain is moving faster than the pace of the book.” [24:31, Adriana]
• Fidget item recommended (e.g., hair tie, cat, even a nail).
• DNF (do not finish) what doesn’t work; sample narrators for audiobooks before committing.

Stephanie’s Tips

• Ride out hyperfixations on media (TV, video games, songs) before switching to reading—"Like when you get a song stuck in your head, listen a few times until you can move on.” [26:19, Stephanie]
• Put phone out of reach to resist distraction temptations.
• Visual triggers (like placing unread books everywhere) can create guilt and slump, rather than motivation; out-of-sight can be helpful.
  • “It wasn’t until I started listening to your podcast that I was able to let go of my book guilt and began enjoying reading again.” [28:12, Stephanie]

Brea: “That is the great thing about an e reader. Not to preach the E reader gospel here, but, you know, a lot of times I don't even know what the book I'm reading looks like.” [29:27]

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Listener Recommendation Request: Pirate/Treasure Hunting Books [30:30–33:26]

Haley asks for "pirate treasure hunting books, nonfiction or fiction," with extra points for badass, heroic women, fake dating, romance, cozy, or books-about-books content.

Recommendations

• Brea: Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh

  • YA sci-fi with a “universal treasure hunt” theme—people search for mysterious colored spheres with life-changing powers, sparking competition and adventure.
  • “It's as if there's all these things out there and you want to find these things. So everyone is constantly on the lookout for them.” [31:33, Brea]

• Mallory: Captured by Beverly Jenkins

  • Pirate romance with adventure, high seas battles, island escapades, and a rescued heroine who doesn’t want to fall for her “notoriously sexy” pirate captor.
  • “There’s...a lot of time on ships, there’s pirate battles, there’s scenes on beautiful islands. It’s really, really fun and a really fun romance.” [33:16, Mallory]

Mallory cracks up about their massive listener mail backlog:
“I even looked at this, and I was like, wow, that's really bad. I looked at our...the combined document is 300 pages long.” [30:44, Mallory]
Brea: “Should we do an entire episode that's just...”
Mallory: “We would have to do a whole year of it. There's no way.” [30:51]

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Memorable Quotes

• “We have literal, like, machines that live in our palms that are like, look at me, look at me and nothing else. And they're addictive machines and they're called phones.” [12:24, Brea]
• “Small chunks will save the world.” [20:10, Mallory]
• “The second you put a book down somewhere, a timer starts...If I have a book in a spot for longer than a week, it ceases to become a book and it becomes a part of that table.” [28:51, Mallory]
• On spoiler-comfort reading: "If my brain is doing too much, I'm like, well, I already know what's going to happen, so this is a safe book. It's a safe choice for me.” [17:32, Brea]

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Key Takeaways & Tone

• The episode is warm, honest, supportive, and irreverent, filled with typical Reading Glasses banter and swearing-for-emphasis.
• While the tips focus on ADHD readers, the hosts repeatedly note the universal application to all modern, distracted readers ("If you live with a phone, these tips probably help you.").
• The community-driven nature of the segment—listeners helping listeners—anchors the show in its crowd-sourced, empathetic, problem-solving spirit.
• The pirate/treasure recs are delivered playfully, with a nod to the hosts’ own massive recommendation backlog.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:31] – What Are You Reading?
• [05:10] – Listener Feedback: Reading by Time/Minutes, Face Blindness & Visualization
• [09:05] – Mallory’s Women’s History Books
• [12:00] – ADHD Reader Tips (start of main topic)
  • [12:52] – E-Readers & Gamification
  • [15:50] – Flexibility and Spoilers
  • [19:02] – Audiobook Speed and Multitasking
  • [21:43] – Novelty and Rituals
  • [24:31] – Fidget Items and DNF Philosophy
  • [26:19] – Hyperfixation and Task Transition
  • [28:12] – Visual Triggers and Book Guilt
• [30:30] – Pirate/Treasure Hunting Book Recommendations

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For Further Feedback

Listeners are encouraged to send in more ADHD tips and book rec requests, because, as Mallory says:
“I’m doing my best out here. I’m fighting for my life. We get a lot of emails...It’s just truly such a high volume that...I’m compiling. Bria’s eating bananas. We’re doing our best.” [34:40]

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Contact: [e-mail]
Instagram: @readingglassespodcast

Closing:
“Thanks for listening and thanks for reading.”

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

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'.

[A]

Meara. And I'm Brie Grant, filmmaker and e reader. This episode, we're giving out tips for ADHD readers and recommending pirate, slash, treasure hunting books. This is something y' all are all very interested in. All the tips are coming from y', all, so we very much appreciate all your tips for ADHD readers.

[B]

Uh, but first, Bria, what are you reading?

[A]

I am reading a book to check off one of the reading glasses Glasses challenges, which is to read a banned book. A currently banned book. That's this year's right? That's Reading Glasses this year challenge.

[B]

This year, a currently banned book by an author who is still alive.

[A]

I'm reading All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson.

[B]

Ooh. Yeah. This was a highly challenged book.

[A]

It is one of the most challenged books, which made me very interested in it. It is, and it's called A Memoir Manifesto. It is a bunch of really beautifully written, like, funny, but poignant essays. I was not prepared for it to be funny and as, like, charming. Like, he has a very charming way of speaking where he's like, okay, I'm gonna tell you a story now. And, like, it just is, like, a really fun way of speaking. He's a queer activist. Right now I'm still, like, in the childhood section, so there was, like, a whole chapter about being bullied because he was queer. There's a chapter about his relationship with his grandmother and a chapter about all of. And all the stuff about his cousins and just being of trying to figure out where he fit in in both the black community and the queer community and how those communities kind of can be separate and you can be in one but not be in the other one. And also where he didn't totally fit in. Like, he was, like, a huge athlete, but also loved to go do double dutch jump roping with. With all the girls from school. And it's just a really well written. He's a fantastic writer and he's a journalist and he's an activist. So, like, he knows how to write and keep you wildly entertained. I've been reading, like, one essay or or so a night, and I finish one essay, and then I'm like, I'm gonna read one more because it's so charming and, like, it feels like you're kind of like, sitting down with your friend and he's just telling you stories about him. Growing up, which is like one of my favorite things when my friends do and I. It's just. It's just a really great book. And like, fuck all the people who have banned it. I cannot believe this book is banned. It's such a. Like, it's a. It's a book that I feel like a lot of people would relate to or would just like buying these stories. Interesting because obviously he grew up in like a different time period when things felt different, although not that different from now. So I cannot believe this book is banned. And it should be not banned, but it should be fucking required reading because it's so great. What are you reading?

[B]

Yeah, it's fucked up. And that's why we gotta fight book banning. We gotta fight it real bad. Go to Authors Against Book Bans to find out more. Where there's a lot of really bad stuff happening right now. I included a link in a recent episode and I'll put it back in in the show notes for this one because things are really scary out there, folks. But not as scary as they are in this book that I'm reading. I am reading, actually. No, the real life book banners are scarier than this book. But this book, this book's a lot more fun to read about. It's called the Burning Library by Gilly McMillan. And this was one of our most anticipated books. And God, I was so right in anticipating. This is a banger so far. It's really getting me out of a book slump. So it starts out, and this is not a spoiler, this is literally first scene. There's this woman and she's at a remote cabin in Scotland and she's trying to decipher something about this little scrap of embroidery. There's like some kind of code or story she's deciphering. And then she gets fucking murdered. And cut to you find there's this young woman, she's in her early 20s, and she's like a savant when it comes to cipher breaking. She has figured out she like there's been this manuscript that's been untranslatable. No one could figure out what it says. And she figured it out on her own because she has a special thing where she has. She's really good at translating at cipher breaking. But she also has like a photographic memory. She remembers every single thing she's ever seen. So she using that she's been able to. To translate this manuscript. And she gets a call, she's trying to figure out where she's going to work. You know, she's getting out of. Out of grad school, and she gets a offer from this very. It's one of those things in, like, thriller books where they're like. It's a secret organization. No one knows who funds them, but they have a lot of money. And there's been. Turns out there's been two rival organizations of women who are trying to find this particular medieval manuscript. And for. For reasons I will not say. And so this woman, this doctor, this doctor, I forget her name, but she swept into this, like, world of cryptology and deciphering things, and there's this other female detective who's on the outside of things, and she's trying to investigate the murder of the woman who was found in the cabin. And it is, like, it's so thrilling. It's so fun. It's so well written. But it's all about books and manuscripts and, like, secret codes and, like, it is making my brain fire. This is one of those books where I'm like, maybe I should go to bed real early because I want to read this. That's the Burning Library by Gilly McMillan.

[A]

And mine is All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson.

[B]

So I take a moment to share some listener feedback. Sarah wrote in to say hi. Brianne. Mallory. In my former work life as a children's librarian, a study came out in the early 2000s that showed children that spent at least 15 minutes a day reading developed better literacy skills. And if those kids were allowed to choose the book they read, they were more likely to enjoy what they read and identify themselves as readers. We restructured our summer reading club to be based on minutes, and it was hugely successful with kids and parents. So this was a follow up to length of time reading versus pages read. And I think.

[A]

I love that.

[B]

I think the research is in, folks. Tracking how long you read is. Is a good thing for your reading life.

[A]

We like minutes, time timers. Emerson wrote in and said, hi, Mallory and Bria, I love your podcast so much. I'm an engineer working on the lunar landers with NASA and Blue Origin, and I think y' all would enjoy knowing that of the hundreds of harnesses, wiring cables I have designed for the landers, many of them were designed with you all talking about books in my ears. Oh, my God.

[B]

I know. That is the coolest. That is the coolest.

[A]

The Return to the Moon program thanks you both for your service. Salute. Emoji. Wow. Honestly, Emerson, what a fucking thrill.

[B]

I know you just made Bria's whole month.

[A]

That really, like, wow. Also Can I come see this? Can I? I would like to. Can I visit? Can I please invite us? Please let us come. More importantly, prosopagnosia. I have face blindness and I cannot remember what anyone's face looks like as soon as I'm not with them anymore. Wow. Facial features move around in my mind and are sometimes replaced with other people's features. Usually I have to memorize the way people move around, their style of clothes or specifics about how they style their hair or makeup. I lived with my best friend for five years and can't even positively identify her because of this. Sometimes reading is hard for getting an idea of what a character looks like. That totally makes sense. I really love reading some YA series because I can see fan art of characters and get a semblance of what these people look like. I realized recently how much of a hassle this has been with reading. So since usually if there are certain facial actions, I have to physically act them out to make sense of it. Would love to hear from other classes with prosopagnosia and Sorry if I'm mispronouncing that and see how we're handling character descriptions. That is fascinating.

[B]

We're actually. I have an episode coming up about what you picture when you read because we've been getting so much interesting feedback about this.

[A]

Okay, Emerson, we're gonna talk about this. That's exciting. I hope y' all keep making this wonderful podcast and keep reading. Do you wanna read Emerson's Wheelhouse hero

[B]

that does not want to be the chosen one? We love a Reluctant hero, folks. Conjugation Horror exploration. Horror caves with three exclamation points, a strange zone with the S and the Z capitalized and grief books and strange journal entries found. Oh, that is a fun one. Love that. 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. Quick bookmark from your old pal, Mallory. It's Women's History Month, and you know who's written a lot of women's history books? Me.

[A]

Mallory.

[B]

Me, Mallory o'.

[A]

Meara.

[B]

I put it in our newsletter. But if you're new to the show, I do write books. I have written five books, one with Bria and most. And all the ones except for the one with Bria are about women's history. If you're interested in the woman who designed the creature from the Black Lagoon, I wrote lady from the Black Lagoon. If you're interested in the history of women and alcohol, did you know that women invented bars? I wrote a book called Girly Drinks. If you're interested in the history of women in Hollywood and the story of America's first stunt woman, you can read Daughter of Daring. If you have a middle grader in your life who wants to make movies and is interested in filmmaking, I wrote a book with my friend Jen Vaughn called, well, I wrote it, Jen illustrated it called Girls Make Movies for all Come One stop shop for all your feminist needs here at Mallory Omara Industries. And if you're interested in in doing the audiobook, if you like this show, I read all of my own audiobooks, so check them out. There's a link in the show notes I would love.

[A]

If you love this voice you can

[B]

hear so much, if you love this loud, fast talking New England girl who swears way too much, there's more of it for you out there. So before we give out tips for ADHD readers, we're going to take a quick break. Reading Glasses is sponsored in part this week by IngramSpark. What is IngramSpark? It's an award winning publishing platform providing everything you need to successfully self publish a book so you can focus on what you do best, writing your story while they make it possible to share it with the world. Folks, Bri and I are both authors. We've written a book together, we've written books separately and we know that writing your book actually is not the most difficult part of being an author. There's a lot of other things that come after getting your book into the hands of readers. Making sure people know about it and can buy it. It's really tough. Especially now. Online spaces are really fracturing and changing all the time. It's really hard to get eyes on your books. Ingramspark is here to help. And the coolest part, it's free. Free to publish. Free to edit your book as needed. And when you self publish with IngramSpark, you are plugged into one of the publishing industry's largest global distribution networks, including access to over 45,000 retailers, including indie bookstores and libraries, which is where we love books to be. 45,000 retailers. That's a lot of emails and phone calls you would have had to make by yourself. IngramSpark takes care of it for you. Do you have a fun book you want to write? Maybe a little cozy sci fi, Maybe a cool epic fantasy? Maybe you want to write about a lady named Sarah who's running a Queer bookstore that actually is a haunted house. The most glasser book of all time. IngramSpark can help you get it into the world. You can get 15% off your first order of 15 more books using code GLASSES15. This offer expires at the end of the year. That's code glasses 15 glasses.

[C]

Hello, this is Alden Ford and Mujanza Fagari, two of the creators of Mission to zyx, your favorite improvised, obsessively sound designed sci fi sitcom here on the Max Fun Network. And the news is we're back with

[A]

an all new miniseries set in the ZIX universe, the Young Ol Derf Chronicles. Yeah, well, Derf find his own killer before it's too late to find out how that question could possibly make sense. Well, you just have to tune in.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And as always, it's ambitious and labor intensive to a frankly absurd degree.

[A]

Indeed.

[C]

So if you are looking for a little break from your own galaxy, we would love for you to check it out.

[A]

That's the Young Ol Derf Chronicles search mission to Zyxyx in your podcast app

[C]

or on maximumfun.org keep it fresh.

[B]

This week we're giving out tips for ADHD readers. We put the call out a few months ago, and the Glassers really delivered with tips and tricks to help ADHD brains get into a book. Okay, so we're going to dive in, but we do want to say Bri and I do not have adhd. This is why we reached out, because we wanted to get like, real tested, tried and true things from ADHD readers. But honestly, a lot of these tips, I feel like they are, they're kind of helpful for, for anybody.

[A]

I totally agree, like, because I think a lot of people come to us because they're like, I'm having trouble focusing on books, which makes total sense. We have literal, like, machines that live in our palms that are like, look at me, look at me and nothing else. And they're addictive machines and they're called phones. So, like, I think that this is helpful for any person who lives with a phone, which is every single person listening to. What are you listening to? You're probably listening to us on a phone.

[B]

Are you distracted? You might be living with a phone. I breathe. You want to read the first one?

[A]

Huh? Avery wrote in and said, as an avid reader with adhd, I didn't notice that some of my reading habits are linked to what works best for my ADH brain until you guys talked about it. Okay, here they are. E Readers forever. Whenever I'm waiting in line, etc, I take it out and read for a few minutes. Beats boredom. Important for ADHD people. 2. It's also light enough that I can read with one hand while eating or read while walking on the treadmill, which is great for ADHD people, I assume because you want to do more than one thing at once. Also, these are all in bullet points. I just keep adding three Whatever. I love the minutes left in chapter feature at the bottom of the page. I love reading, but my ADHD also loves a small achievable goals and B gamification. I can challenge myself to finish the chapter before getting up to do something else, and I know it's not hard because it will only take six minutes. Wow. I totally believe in this and it's very helpful to me to be like, oh, I have six minutes. I can do this. I can just finish this before I go do something else. Okay, this one is weird, but I made the font a little bigger so I could more easily read it while walking on the treadmill, and it's actually very satisfying to be able to turn the page more frequently. If your ADHD brain is craving stimulation, it can feel good to feel like you're moving through the book quickly.

[B]

I do this, remember? I remember that time I went on the date and the guy showed up and was like, wow, the font's real big on your Kobo. And I was like, I'm gonna hit you with my car off.

[A]

My font's really big on mine, but it's because I need to be wearing reading glasses and I don' and then finally I keep my Kindle very full, both of books I own and love to reread. Plus tons of loans from Libby. If something I'm reading isn't hitting the spot, I just open a new one. No need to get up and put it on the shelf and get a new one. No reading momentum loss. Avery, we love those. What else we got?

[B]

Kira wrote in to say my biggest struggle is switching tasks, so if I don't start reading the second I get home, chances are it won't happen. Problem is, I often can't get straight to reading. I have to cook, eat, and maybe even have a new episode of a TV show I want to watch. On those days, I found I can usually at least get myself to move my book from my bedside table to the couch if I sit directly on top of my TV remote so that I have to pick it up to start the next episode or YouTube video when it ends. I have learned autoplay is the enemy. Usually just Picking it up tricks me into reading since it would be more effort to figure out what to turn on next rather than to just read what I'm already holding. It's like my own little forced restart button I found Gamifying Reading does wonders without it feeling like a chore to check off. Storygraph gives me colorful charts. Your own reading challenge feels a lot like a gaming achievement. And now there's yet another reading tracking site called pagebound. We do note for the glassers. We've been getting a lot of emails about this. We will be testing this out in the future. It covers the social aspect storygraph lacks and has little reward badges. I literally can get experience points by reading. Even on days when the mere thought of having to focus makes reading sound painful. Knowing I can make my little streak counter turn orange and I can literally level up like a video game character gets me to listen to or read a chapter of any book that I can. I this is the. This is actually the most intrigued I've been about page bound. I am. But we. We're seeing this. Gamifying things can really work for ADHD readers.

[A]

Yeah. That's so nice. Bethany wrote in and said, first, sometimes the brain says not today to reading. And I've learned to just let it go and find something else to do. Take the pressure off. Pressure makes it worse. Those books will still be there. And let it be okay that something else is engaging your attention. Honestly, that's for everyone. That's not just ADHD people. Give yourself a nod today. One thing I do is try to change formats. If I'm reading an ebook, then I try audio or print. Print books are really great for me because the physical nature of them helps to ground me and my brain in the moment. And audiobooks are perfect when I need to do a tedious chore and need something else to focus on. As Mallory would say, laundry. I feel like we only talk about laundry on the show.

[B]

Why is it? It's weird. I feel like I don't wear that many clothes and then I look, I'm like, how have I worn every. Everything. Every. Every piece of clothing in the world? Like laundry. You do laundry and you have like one glorious hour where you're like, ah, an empty laundry basket. And then you turn back, it's full again. I don't know. And I live by myself. It's just me. Be me and two cats who don't wear clothes. I don't know how this happens.

[A]

Another thing is to try to set the timer for five to 10 minutes. To try to read something and if the timer goes off and I'm still not into it, then I put it down later. That's interesting. Get a new book from the library. We're not made of money. If nothing I have on hand is appealing to me in the moment, I go look for something new to draw me in if it fills the impulse purchase need in me and also gives me something to fulfill the need for something new. Got a hyper fixation. Reading about it counts. Oh, that's interesting. Also, weirdly, spoil the book for yourself. Listen to a deep dive or read a spoilery review about it. Sometimes the unknown can be too much for us to handle when we're at capacity. And often I find once I've done that, I'm excited to read the book or write in, avoiding it because I know if some of my favorite wheelhouse tropes slash storylines are in there.

[B]

That's interesting.

[A]

This is fascinating because that is. That is why I spoil the book is that it can convince me to read it. And also, like, if my brain is doing too much, I'm like, well, I already know what's going to happen, so this is a safe book. It's a safe choice for me. I know that this is going to convince me.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Is that an ADHD thing or is this just. Maybe it's just a general. A lot of these can apply to a lot of people, but interesting. That's fascinating. Yeah.

[B]

All right, so we have more ADHD reading tips. We're going to take a quick break first. You can send yours tips to reading classes podcastmail.com.

[D]

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Okay, we are back. Let's give out some more ADHD reading tips. Daphne wrote in to say one thing that works for me is listening to audiobooks. I know you guys already talk about This a lot on the show, which I love. But what works for me with my ADHD reading brain is being able to multitask. I am also, weirdly, only able to focus if I speed them up. And you know what? I have heard this from a lot of other ADHD readers. Not sure why that is, but on 1x speed, it just goes too slow and my mind will wander. Yeah, I mean, we've talked about this. I always. I. At minimum, 1.2 for me, right now I'm reading an audiobook and I'm.

[A]

You've talked about that. They're. They're also, like, reading it at a slow pace. Yeah, I'm at a 1.7 now. That's about where I live.

[B]

But it's. It forces you to pay attention because if it's. If it's slower. And I've said when you read audiobooks, they have you read slower. It does let your mind wander. So I think this is kind of another really good general tip. My second tip for reading with ADHD is to alternate it with another activity. I have a lot of hobbies, also an ADHD thing, and I have a lot of trouble picking one thing I want to do in my free time. So what works for me is sometimes to alternate reading a chapter in my book and doing something else I enjoy in a small chunk. We love a small chunk, folks. Oh, small chunks will save the world.

[A]

Alternating.

[B]

It keeps from getting boring and keeps my mind active. My final tip is to do something you said not to do, but is to treat reading a bit like a chore. I have a lot of trouble motivating myself to do things I actually enjoy doing, no matter how badly I want to do them. I could be sitting on the couch with my book within reach thinking, man, I wish I could read without anything really stopping me. So to get over that strange mind hurdle, it does help me to force myself to read sometimes. It helps me get through the transition from doing one thing, usually scrolling on my phone, to something else, which is also a struggle.

[A]

That is a task switch. If you think about it.

[B]

It's.

[A]

You're switching tasks.

[B]

It's all about. It's all about whether or not that is stressful to you and I. Bria and I, we're upholders. We love a. We love a task. We love a to do list. I texted Bria the other day that I was like, bria, I just made a list of lists that I want to make

[A]

sure it is you make it.

[B]

I did. And then I checked them all up. I Made all those lists. I just. I got overwhelmed in the moment, and I was like, I have to make lists of so many different things. And I wrote them all down and then I made the. And it made me feel better that this list of lists, but sometimes the

[A]

inception list, the list full of lists,

[B]

lists on lists I should do list of to do lists is so wild. But it helped me.

[A]

It's very funny.

[B]

So I. Bria and I are the types of people that I. We. We get motivated and excited to. To tick things off. And it's not, Not. Not often that it makes us feel, like, stressed out and, like, we have homework. But if that's. If you're the same way, this can be really helpful for you.

[A]

Um, Sarah wrote in and said, keep in mind, ADHD is not the same for all of us, but for me, it really helps me to introduce novelty into my reading practice, because my brain might thrive on routines, but it also hates them. For me, this includes things like making advanced plans with myself for a reading afternoon at a favorite coffee shop, park, library, e. When I don't feel like I've been reading as much as I want. Having that focus time set aside, plus the perk of a place I like and a treat helps me get back in with my reading habit. Honestly, this sounds great.

[B]

This sounds awesome.

[A]

As I set an alarm an hour before I go to bed at night to remind me to turn off the screens and read before bed, which helps sometimes. I think the biggest key for ADHD folks is just because a strategy doesn't work once, we don't have to give up on it or get mad at ourselves when it doesn't. I love the idea of setting an alarm. I should do this. Set an alarm to put your phone down.

[B]

Yeah, it's great.

[A]

The phone. Put it across the room one hour before bedtime. I wish I would do that, but I don't do that.

[B]

My boyfriend does this here. Like, he. Every. Every night. We're like, we got. He's got. He has to get off the phone. He gets in the tub and reads and, like, I don't text him the rest of the night. And it really, like, I'm like, I think I should steal this because it's, you know. Yeah, it's one of those things where it's like exercise or communication or all these things that are kind of hard but. Or. And drinking water, it's, like, annoying. And then as soon as you do them, you're like, this works. God damn it. Like, I have such.

[A]

It turns out, like, eating Green stuff and drinking water.

[B]

Eating two full bananas every day.

[A]

Really Every day. Highly suggest. I can highly recommend, if you have a problem, how many bananas are eating? Just one. Add a second. I don't think three. I think three is too many, actually. I think three is too many.

[B]

Do a perfect amount, but you gotta space him out. You have to have one banana during the day. Then you have to have one banana at midnight. That's the perfect amount of bananas. Then you're on a full 12 hour banana rotation.

[A]

Don't be wild. And try to eat two during the middle of the day.

[B]

Two bananas at once. That's our other show. Anyway. Yeah, it's one of. This is one of those things that does seem to work and I really need to. I need to get better about it. And at the beginning of the year,

[A]

one of my goals was to sleep with my phone across the room.

[B]

But then you have too stressed right now. You have too many things going on.

[A]

I know. And then the first thing in the morning I'm like, did I remember to do this? And then I go check it. Yeah, it's next to me right now. It is next to me, unfortunately.

[B]

But yeah, I can't do that.

[A]

Maybe when I'm done with March, we'll see.

[B]

Yeah, it's tough, it's. But again, it does seem like it's one of those things that works. So I mean, that's the cool thing about a lot of the. These listener tips is that we're gonna. We don't have ADHD and we're taking some of them.

[A]

They're great tips.

[B]

Then Adriana wrote in to say, if you're able, do more than one book at a time to keep the brain happy and occupied. Ideally an e book and an audiobook. I usually read my E reader at bedtime with warm dark mode on. So I can. That sounds very sensual mode.

[A]

That's what I do too.

[B]

It just sounds so sensual. Warm dark mode. So I can read in the dark without having it keep me awake and it reduces distractions. This means it typically takes me a long time to finish reading books. But I only pick shorter books, less than 200 pages, so I don't feel guilty about that fact. When I'm able, I also read my ebook on my phone while I eat lunch. This way I don't have to worry about packing a book in my bag each day or forgetting about it altogether. Another tip is invest in a good pair of noise canceling headphones to reduce distractions while listening to audiobooks. Next one is try to find fast paced books, it's too easy to zone out. If you feel like your brain is moving faster than the pace of the book, that's a good one. Next one is have something to fidget with. My personal favorite is a hair tie. But you do you also highly recommend a cat for this? Very good to fidget with.

[A]

Right now I have like a. This is very weird, but there's like a nail that somehow ended up like a nail. Like a hammer and nail that ended up near my desk. And I play with it all day long.

[B]

This nail free nail. Bria has been getting her house renovated and when you do that, you get a free nail. And the last one from Adriana is you have to find a good audiobook in all caps. You guys have empowered me to embrace the DNF lifestyle and I'm more than happy to drop an audiobook if it's not holding my attention. I listen to samples of books before I commit to them, and I often seek out other books by known audiobook rock stars. That is a really. That's a. That's a hot tip.

[A]

That's a good audiobook narrator. Really can make a huge difference. But yeah, and it seems like a lot of these people are recommending audiobooks, which I like for an ADHD person. Stephanie wrote in and said if I can't stop thinking about a video game or TV show, I let myself enjoy that forever. Long, the entrance to list lasts and then find it much easier to focus on reading afterwards. That's what Mallory does too. It's a similar feeling when you get a song stuck in your head and you have to listen to the whole thing once or twice before you can move on to something else. Is that what you do when you get a song stuck in your head? You listen to it and then it goes away?

[B]

Not for me. I'm one of those people. When I'm on a song, I will listen to it 15 times a day for like a week. And then I'm. Then I'm satisfied. It's like it's not a one and done situation. I have this really embarrassing. It's not embarrassing. It's a great fucking song. But it is like this yacht rock song that I've had stuck in my head by Billy Ocean and I cannot stop listening to it. And I. I listen to it like five, six times a day. And I've been doing that for the past few days.

[A]

What's the name of the song? We have to listen to it. I'm gonna drop it on here.

[B]

Caribbean Queen. Oh, what the. It's so good. It's. That's very funny, but I. Yeah, there's no way I could listen to the song once and be good and be done with it, but I. I really understand that feeling. Sometimes you just have to get it out of your system or you can't focus on anything else.

[A]

The phone magically appearing in my hand was also so relatable. I will be reading a book and it will mention something obscure like a harp loot, and suddenly I'm looking up the difference between loots and mandolins before I even know I'm doing it.

[B]

This is real. Same problem.

[A]

Sometimes this is not a big deal and can be a fun way to learn something new, but sometimes it can also be a way for me to procrastinate if it becomes a distraction. Just putting the phone in a different room or. Or just out of reach is such a big help. Y' all know what I love? When my phone runs out of batteries and I have to go plug it in somewhere and I haven't looked at it in a long time.

[B]

Yeah, that was yesterday.

[A]

I just had been. I had like, I was telling Mallory I had a real meltdown yesterday morning, but then I had a facial booked and you know you can't look at your phone during a facial. And I laid there and this wonderful woman rubbed my face for an hour and it was amazing. And I. Then I. Afterwards I was like, I picked up my phone, I was like, oh, wow, I haven't looked at this in an hour. And sometimes that is what you need is just to put it on the other side of the room and suddenly you can, like, your brain resets.

[B]

Oh, it's so great.

[A]

Yeah. Avoid using visual triggers to get yourself to read. When I was younger, I used to sit the book I wanted to read on my bedside table and pack it in my purse and put it in the coffee table with this idea that if I kept seeing it everywhere, I would eventually get over myself and read it instead. It just became a source of guilt. Every time I saw the book, it reminded me that it has been X amount of time since I last read and feel bad about myself. I ended up driving myself into a two year long book slump because of it. It wasn't until I started listening to your podcast that I was able to let go of my book guilt and began enjoying read again. Yeah, I think, like, it makes sense to be like, here's the book that I want to read. I'm gonna put it right here. But a lot of Times I start looking at that book, and then the book becomes starting.

[B]

The second you put a book down somewhere, a timer starts. And if it. If. If I have a book in a spot for longer than a week, it. It ceases to become a book and it becomes a part of that table. It is just.

[A]

It is a table.

[B]

It is.

[A]

The book becomes a table.

[B]

Yeah, it is. It's not a book in my mind anymore. Like, it's a coaster. It's. It's a seat for a cat. It's a phone holder.

[A]

Well, it' exciting. You're not looking at and going like, ooh, exciting. This book?

[B]

Yeah. No, it's just a thing. Like, it's. You have. I have to constantly move it around. I'm making my way through a book right now, and I keep being like, nope, can't leave it on the bedside table. Gotta move it somewhere else so it looks new and exciting again.

[A]

That is the great thing about an e reader. Not to preach the E reader gospel here, but, you know, a lot of times I don't even know what the book I'm reading looks like. Like, I'll be like, oh, that's the

[B]

COVID of that book.

[A]

Because you're just your e reader sitting there. So it's not like you're staring at the book cover. Very often. I. I can see the book covers on my e reader, but, like, I'm not. Not thinking about them. So it does hide that. That part where it's still, like, kind

[B]

of exciting, that cover fatigue. Well, folks, these are all really amazing. Tip. I'm doing the. I'm doing a slide whistle for everyone. A blanket slide whistle here. We hope that this is helpful for folks. Write in. Let us know if these are helpful. Write in if you have some more. We literally had so many. I was like, I can't even do a listener's feedback segment about this. We have to do a whole, whole episode. So we hope this is helpful. And write in. You can send your thoughts to reading glasses podcast gmail.com foreign. Now, let's answer a recommendation request from Haley, who says, as part of the Reading glasses challenge for 2021, I wanted to send you my wheelhouse. I also want to say this tells you how backed up we are.

[A]

Mallory From 2021, I looked.

[B]

I was like. I even looked at this, and I was like, wow, that's really bad. I looked at our. Right now, between our listener questions and listener recommendation requests, the. The combined document is 300 pages long.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[B]

It is a full novel of questions and recommendation requests.

[A]

Should we do an entire episode? That's just.

[B]

We would have to do a whole year of it. There's no way.

[A]

Okay, that's a good point.

[B]

But I did keep this in there and I thought it was good. And I'm sorry, Haley, that you had to wait five years for it. I'm so sorry, but it is. The wheelhouse is fantasy. Specifically badass women making the hero's journey. Romance. Specifically fake dating and fake fiance. Books about books. Cozy books. Specifically books about falling and pirate treasure hunting books. Please let me know if you have any recommendations for pirate treasure hunting books. Non fiction or fiction. Thank you. Bria, what do you think Haley should read?

[A]

Wait, neither of us are doing the Adventures of Amina Else. I almost did that one.

[B]

I assumed you would do it.

[A]

Too much.

[B]

We've recommended.

[A]

We recommended it. Okay. Okay. I'm going treasure hunting. I'm doing Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh, which I have not recommended that much. It's a.

[B]

No.

[A]

Not a world in which these, like, fresh fears and you find these little spheres and each one does something different for you. Like it either makes you taller, it makes you better looking. And no one knows where they came from. They just kind of like live out in the world. Or you can be like, oh, this is a light blue sphere. This one is gonna make me good at math. And you can go and sell it for that for some huge amount of money. And there's special ones out there that have never been found. And one day this kid finds a gold one that's never been found. And it all. And it becomes about like people are searching for them like it's part of the world. So it's sort of like a universal treasure hunting thing. It's as if if there's all these things out there and like you want to find these things. So everyone is constantly on the lookout for them.

[B]

It's like Pokemon Go, but for. For orc.

[A]

Oh my God. It is like Pokemon Go. That's actually a really good.

[B]

Thanks. I'm a writer.

[A]

Really good example. So it's a really fun treasure hunting book, but like, not in the way you would normally think of. It's almost like a game, but no one knows who put them out there, so it's like not a game. Anyway, it is fantastic. I loved this book. It's a really fun one. What do you have?

[B]

For Haley, I am recommending Captured by Beverly Jenkins. This is a pirate romance book. So it's getting pirate books, but also some stuff in Haley's wheelhouse. So I think it might be perfect. This is about a notorious sexy pirate who captures a British ship and he rescues all of the enslaved people on board, including a beautiful woman who does not want to fall for her captor. But as I said, he's so sexy. He's so sexy. So. And there's. So it's like, it's obviously a romance book, so it's part of, like, that's my main chunk of the book. But it's all like, there's a lot about, you know, because of course, the. The people who owned all of the. All the enslaved folks that this pirate rescued are not happy about it and they want to get their revenge. So there's a lot of time on ships, there's pirate battles, there's scenes on beautiful islands. It's really, really fun and a really fun romance. So that is captured by Beverly Jenkins.

[A]

Mine's Burning Midnight by Will McDosh.

[B]

If you want us to answer your recommendation request and have us answer it five years later, you can send it to reading glassespodcastmail. Com, folks, is 300 page. I'm doing my best out here. I'm fighting for my life. We get a lot of emails also. You know what? I do want to do a little PSA because sometimes people who are classers email us about their own books that they want us to talk about or they ask us that. People email us if they want to send us stuff or people email us about, like, something that they're offering to us. We get so many emails like that a day. They get filtered into a, like a special folder. We get probably 10 of them a day. So I miss them. So if you have ever emailed us to, like, offer us something or you wanted to send us something or you wanted to tell us about your book and we never responded. It's just we have such a high volume of them. It's impossible for us to. To respond. We're. We do. I like. I'm doing. I'm doing my best just to keep up with reading them, but it is very appreciated. We adore you. We adore how. How active Glassers are in this community. And I don't to want. Want people to think we don't care. It's just. It's just truly such a high volume that. It's just me, folks. It's just me here. Compiling. I'm compiling. Bria's eating bananas. We're doing our best.

[A]

It's doing a great job.

[B]

If you want to answer your recommendation request, you can send it to reading glasses podcast gmail.com as always, want to thank the wonderful mods who run our Discord server and our Facebook group. Remember all kinds of fun stuff over on our Void March store. There's totes and shirts and stickers and a lot of cool things that'll show off how bookish you are and help feed my hungry cat named Sailor, who's very picky with his food. If you like the show, please rate and review us on the podcast listening app of your choice. It's really great for us and helps us reach more readers. You can email us@reading glassespodcastmail.com find us on Instagram at Reading Glasses Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading.

[A]

Thanks for reading.

[D]

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[B]

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