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Note: This article focuses on improving general reading endurance, and as a result, it is written in a simple template format with references and links simply presented at the end.
One of the biggest sacrifices we have unknowingly made in the last two decades has been to our ability to rest effectively throughout the day. The dominating permeance of the smartphone and all of the convenience, productivity, and security that they provide has created a symbiotic and problematic relationship. This relationship resides between us, the users, and the many stakeholders of the applications on our phones, which compete for our time. This results in users doomscrolling or reaching for their phone whenever they have a moment of downtime or are in an uncomfortable setting. They are merely looking for an escape and some stimulus to keep their brains occupied.
Thus, modern life has had most of its singular practices erased, an act that focuses on only one task, as we are constantly drawn to keep one or more sources of stimulus active in every moment of our day. For instance, when people go hiking on trails, they listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks, sometimes through speakers rather than headphones. To pass the time, we feel it necessary to have our phones provide stimulus to us, even when we are watching television.
Throughout the day, we require moments of rest. The issue with retreating into one’s phone is that the act of resting is replaced by us hunting for stimuli to occupy us for a brief period. This results in whatever rest that occurs to be of poor quality.
Quality rest throughout the day is highly important because it allows our brains to enter a productive resting state where we are still engaged in something other than our work or prevailing life problems. Just think about the cliched examples of geniuses coming to the solution of a difficult problem while on a walk. Since it is not always possible to go out for a walk due to the weather, reading medium to long-form material, greater than 800 words, is the best technique to actively engage in a singular act which requires one’s full attention.
The problem with reading for the general population is that reading rates have plummeted, especially since the pandemic. As with any skill or muscle that goes unused, vast swaths of the population no longer have the endurance to read anything for more than a minute, or if they are lucky, the duration of a small bowel movement.
Thus, it is important to work on one’s rest hygiene, and dedicated reading is the simplest way to begin. The best way to work on one’s reading endurance to start reading effectively again and gain quality rest is by starting with children’s books. Their long-form format discourages skimming the material, as the reader can easily get lost within a few pages, but their simpler plot structures and character arcs give those with poor attention spans an easier barrier of entry into reading. A note before moving forward: reading physical or eBooks only count towards optimal rest hygiene. Unless one is closing their eyes while listening to an audiobook, they will most likely be multitasking, and as wonderful as audiobooks are, that defeats the purpose of the discussion in this article.
I first came upon reading children’s books as an adult by reading the titles before I would give them as gifts for my friend’s children. Book reviews are not always accurate, and modern children’s books have a few pitfalls which can be detrimental for a specific child if they were exposed to them. Every child has a different intellectual and emotional capacity, and some bright children can very easily latch onto themes and topics which an author tries to sneak in only for a parent to take note of. An example of this was last year’s The Anxious Exile of Sara Salt by Gabrielle Prendergast. While indirect mentioning of c-sections and postpartum depression may fly over the heads of many children reading this book, the child whom I initially bought the book for would have immediately been able to piece together what was happening. This is a topic that their parents would have preferred to have a discussion with them beforehand, and not for their child to learn on the internet after reading the opening pages of a book.
I also came to reading children’s books in my guest to read every book written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Before taking on The Fellowship of the Ring, I had to read his two children’s books, Roverandom and The Hobbit. Reading these two books and Jasmine Warga’s excellent title A Rover’s Story resulted in some of the highest quality rest I had in years.
These excellent books, just like 2012’s Wonder by R.J. Palacio, retained all of the necessary ingredients of long-form writing to demand my attention while also presenting a simpler plot structure and more direct arc for the characters. Yes, they were easier to read than adult titles such as Ian McEwan’s recent masterpiece What We Can Know, and I’d argue that they were not as nearly as stimulating, entertaining, or nourishing. Nevertheless, I was better rested after reading them.
If you do plan to start working on your reading endurance by starting with children’s books, there are a few things to be mindful of. Modern children’s books, like the one’s mentioned above, have certain language and tendencies forced upon them by publishers to make them easier to market. For one, children are often depicted in a rather warped nature where they are overly silly with nicknames and catch phrases. Both adults and children can be caught out by this, but the pursuit to make books cool1 by publishing executives has its consequences. As adults we also have to widen our range of disbelief. Throughout A Rover’s Story, my mind kept wondering about the consciousness of a robot possibly being a virus which was infecting other computers and sent my brain racing as to figure out who had written the virus and why. Mrs. Varga was simply telling the story of a Mars rover through its point of view, but certain details of her story required me to simply accept that the main protagonist of the story, the rover, was simply capable of human emotions.
Throughout the holiday season, I went from one function to the next and saw attendees exhausted. Every single time they had a moment alone, their faces were illuminated with fast moving lights from their smartphones. As the new year came and went, I decided to write an earlier version of this article before landing on using the singular practice of reading long-form material as the best way to improve our rest hygiene. At one gala, two other guests asked me what I did in my spare time, and they were oddly amazed that I told them about reading. As they drank the free single malt scotch with haste, they primarily latched on to my point of greater empathy gained from reading, but they shrugged in agreement about getting quality rest.
Making the time and creating habit forming routines is important in everything, and this goes for reading as well. Having an eBook app on your phone with books that you read when ever you have a spare moment is the best way to start. Then setting aside a time and even a dedicated space towards reading will come easier. I recommend starting with the classics before venturing into modern children’s books, for as the Lindy Effect states, if a work has endured until now, it has a much greater chance of enduring, and thus being relevant, in the future. This negates the negative trends and traits that plague a lot of modern works, while also granting you a springboard to them and to adult books as well.
Time of writing, Sunday February 8th, 2025
References Cited:
- “How to Get Children Reading Again”, by Emma Jacobs, 07/04/25, The Financial Times
General References:
“Screen grab: can books win the battle for children’s attention?” by Cal Wilknson, 12/12/25, The Financial Times
Further Reading:
https://furrywristabroad.com/navigatinghostileinternet/
https://furrywristabroad.com/consequences-of-how-we-spend-our-downtime/
https://furrywristabroad.com/templates/
https://furrywristabroad.com/working-tools-to-combat-your-decline-in-literacy/