Librarian secrets to getting into books for the very first time.
A question I occasionally come across browsing through the bookish internet: I haven’t read a book since high school. I’m thinking of trying one. Where do I start?
Or maybe: I got through high school on Sparknotes and bullshit, so I’ve never read a book from cover to cover in my life. I’m interested in seeing what happens if I read an actual book. What should it be?
There seems to be, for one reason or another, a surprising number of adults in the world who are literate and fully capable of reading a book, but who have chosen not to for a long time. They might have fallen out of the habit during lockdown, when the idea of giving something sustained attention felt impossible; or after they left school, when no one was forcing them to read; or perhaps they never found the habit of reading whole books in the first place.
“You have people who just were reluctant readers their whole life and never read,” says Marvin DeBose, manager of the Haverford branch of Philadelphia’s Free Library system. “And then it sometimes happens that as you get older, your peers start talking about ‘I’m in a book club’ and stuff like that. People read at church. That’s what gets them back to reading as they get older.”
“There’s screen fatigue and scroll fatigue, so even people who typically might be inclined to read digitally are finding print again,” says Emily Pullen, manager of reader services at the New York Public Library. “They’re craving something that they can still get entertainment and storytelling from, but they don’t have to be looking at a screen for it.”
If you’re coming back to books for the first time in a long time, or even the first time ever, the idea of sitting down with a whole novel might seem more than a little overwhelming.
That’s why we’re here. I talked to librarians about the strategies they use to help readers introduce themselves to books, whether it’s for the first time in a long time or the first time, period. Here’s how they go about it.
Know what’s put you off reading in the past
If you have a history of not enjoying reading, it’s helpful to know what it is you didn’t like about it, so you know what to avoid while you plan your next move.
“I might ask someone in that situation if they disliked reading in school,” says Pullen. “Ask yourself what it is you didn’t like. Was it just that it was required and therefore you didn’t want to do it? Is it because it was boring, it was too slow, it was too academic? Trying to figure out what it is that someone didn’t like about a book, that can help us to start figuring out what the next best suggestion might be.”
If you tapped out of books after eighth grade because To Kill a Mockingbird was just way too twee for you, a good librarian or bookseller can use that information to steer you away from nostalgic historical novels about plucky children and toward something with a little more edge. If the thing you didn’t like about reading in school is simply that it was required, you might get a kick out of reading something that feels especially rebellious to start things off.
Know what you like in other media
“People come to me all the time and say they don’t read anything and are trying to look for something to read,” says DeBose. “What I do first is try to find out their interests. What I found out is that if you find a book about something that interests you, that will mean you’ll read more.”
This strategy doesn’t mean you need to read nonfiction to find your way back into books. You can also think about what you like in TV and movies and video games.
“More often than not these days, TV shows are based on books,” says Pullen. “So you can read the books that are in that series, whether it’s Bridgerton or Game of Thrones. Or if you don’t want to read Bridgerton specifically, you can try a book by the same author, and that might be a way to start realizing that good storytelling is good storytelling.”
“They have a lot of books that tie in to movies,” DeBose adds. “If you can find a movie that they’re interested in, a movie that they saw in the past and you can tie in to a book, then that’s a great source right there.”
You might also find that some of the people you like in other media have written their own books.
“If you listen to podcasts, find out if the hosts have published books,” advises Pullen, “because even though it’s a longer form, the voice often will feel immediately familiar. It will be a softer way to build up the muscles back into reading.”
Start small, and don’t be afraid to play with formats
Reading a book requires some sustained attention, and as the cliché goes, attention is a muscle. It requires exercise. If you’re just dipping back into reading, go slowly. There’s no need to set yourself up for failure by trying a book that’s too long for you to deal with right now.
“Don’t immediately jump into an 800-page tome just because your best friend says it’s their favorite book,” says Pullen. “Whether it’s a classic or not — maybe it’s even a page-turner like Stephen King. Starting with something that big could definitely be an intimidating way to go.”
Luckily, she notes, shorter books like novellas and standalone short stories are having a moment these days. “Be a little gentler on yourself,” Pullen says. “You can read something that’s still book-length, but maybe a bit more consumable.”
DeBose says he often points inexperienced readers in their late teens and early 20s toward graphic novels. Specifically, he likes G. Neri’s Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty. “It’s an easy read and correlates to some of the stuff that’s going on now. I use it all the time and I’m batting a hundred percent,” he says.
Lala Rodgers, a branch manager for the Chicago Public Library, recommends audiobooks as a good resource for people who aren’t used to reading. “They might be able to listen and read along while they’re listening,” she says. “It might be more engaging. I’m a big audiobook person myself.”
You don’t have to read along as you listen, either. You can listen to audiobooks as you do housework or drive, and that will still count as reading. Graphic novels count, too. They will both help you get back into the swing of paying sustained and active attention to a story, which is the skill you’re trying to build here.
Regardless of what approach you take to get back into reading, the most important thing you can do is ask for help.
“I firmly believe that there is a perfect book for every reader,” says Pullen. “But there are so many books right now it can be overwhelming. That’s what booksellers and librarians are for: to help you wade through the sea of so much that is published in order to find something that will speak to you.”
Find checks, security deposits, and refunds on unclaimed property.
There’s nothing like the little thrill of finding a few crumpled dollar bills in the pocket of a jacket you haven’t worn in a while. You might have more cash you forgot about waiting for retrieval — all it takes is a quick search online.
Each US state, plus Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Kenya, and several provinces in Canada, keeps a record of unclaimed property that people can then collect. Unclaimed properties are assets and money people forgot they had — like uncashed checks (often a final check from an employer), money in old checking or savings accounts, refunds, security deposits, or the contents of a safe deposit box. About one in seven Americans has unclaimed property, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.
For example, if you didn’t give a former landlord a forwarding address for your security deposit and didn’t deposit the check for an extended period of time — usually three to five years, depending on the state where you live — that money becomes “unclaimed.” The asset is then turned over to the state until you claim it. The state will hold onto the money until it’s claimed by you, or in the event of your death, your heirs.
“In the state of Colorado [the money is held in] a trust fund,” says Colorado State Treasurer Dave Young. “We hold the money or safety deposit box contents in perpetuity.”
How to claim missing money
You can check to see if you have any unclaimed property by searching your name, or former names, on MissingMoney.com, which is managed by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. (The average claim value is just over $2,000, per MissingMoney.com.) The results may include hundreds of entries for people with the same or similar names, but you should only attempt to claim assets that are associated with addresses you’ve had in states, provinces, or even countries you’ve lived or worked in. Businesses and nonprofits may also have unclaimed property.
“Somebody may be a US citizen, but may have lived for a time in one of the [Canadian] provinces, Puerto Rico, Kenya,” Young says. “Likewise, somebody may have come in here to live and is still working through a process of becoming a citizen or is under some kind of visa and has maybe gotten separated from their money.”
Searching for unclaimed property is free. Sometimes third-party companies will charge a fee to locate lost property, and these companies are legal. However, all information on unclaimed property is available at no charge online.
To claim an asset, click the “claim” button. You may be navigated to your state’s specific treasury website. You’ll need to prove your identity by providing your name, social security number, a copy of your ID, phone number, email address, and mailing address. You can claim assets on behalf of a deceased relative, but you’ll need proper documentation that shows you are the executor or administrator for your relative.
After the state reviews your materials, you might be asked for more information to prove your identity. If not, the state will mail a check for the amount you’re owed, usually within a few weeks. For claims larger than $1,000, you might need to provide a notarized claim form, Young says.
How to keep your money from going missing
In order to prevent your money from becoming unclaimed in the first place, make sure all your accounts — checking, savings, IRAs, etc. — are active by making deposits or withdrawals periodically. Make sure your contact information is up to date for these accounts as well.
Don’t forget to check MissingMoney.com at least once a year to see if any new assets have been added. “Don’t leave it behind,” Young says. “This is your money.”
Vague health exceptions to extreme abortion bans aren’t just a Texas problem.
A Texas state court on Friday sided with a group of women and doctors suing the state, saying that exceptions to Texas’ stringent abortion restrictions are too vague and prevented or delayed people from getting abortion care when their lives or health were at risk.
Texas’ SB 8, which passed before Roe v. Wade was overturned last year, bans abortions past six weeks with some exceptions and deputizes citizens to enforce the law by suing people who aid or abet abortion, putting healthcare providers at legal risk. Under the law, doctors can provide abortion care if the health or life of the pregnant person is at risk; but the lack of clarity around what those conditions meant had a chilling effect on doctors in the state — and had serious effects on patients’ health
Judge Jessica Mangrum of the Travis County District Court ruled Friday in Zurawski v. State of Texas that physicians could use their “good faith judgement” to perform an abortion for a patient who has, “a physical medical condition or complication of pregnancy that poses a risk of infection, or otherwise makes continuing a pregnancy unsafe for the pregnant person; a physical medical condition that is exacerbated by pregnancy, cannot be effectively treated during pregnancy, or requires recurrent invasive intervention; and/or a fetal condition where the fetus is unlikely to survive the pregnancy and sustain life after birth,” according to the ruling.
The Texas Attorney General’s office filed an appeal in the case on Friday night, staying the injunction while the case is on appeal, according to the New York Times, and accusing Mangrum of trying “to override Texas abortion laws.”
Mangrum’s injunction would block SB 8’s vigilante enforcement mechanism from being enacted against any patients seeking abortions for medical reasons or against the physicians who perform those procedures — and furthermore states that doing so would violate pregnant people’s rights under Texas’s constitution.
Though Mangrum’s injunction is presently on hold, it’s important for two main reasons that are not exclusive to Texas: It forces clarity around abortion exceptions and protects doctors and patients; and it establishes that punishing people who seek or provide abortions under those circumstances is unconstitutional.
Though the eventual, final ruling will apply only to Texas, it’s not the only state where unclear legislation is limiting access to medically necessary abortion. And it’s not the only state where reproductive health advocates are grappling with the right to abortion under the state’s constitution.
The vagueness and chilling effect are the point
As anti-abortion state legislators have enacted bans throughout the country, they’ve had to grapple with the complexities of abortion care and reproductive health. Most pregnancies are safe and healthy, but some cause severe complications or are not viable. Overturning Roe v. Wade didn’t change those conditions or provide better prenatal healthcare, it just made pregnancy more dangerous in many states.
“[Anti-choice legislators] could make whatever political points they wanted to because they had a backstop,” with Roe v. Wade in place, South Carolina Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto told Vox in September. “They knew nothing they passed was ever going to go into effect. They could pass all they wanted to, and it didn’t matter — and it allowed them to let their rhetoric to just soar to the red meat of their party because they could gin up the party knowing that nothing they said was ever going to be enacted into law. Then, all of a sudden […] it’s like the dog that caught the bus.”
With SB 8, Texas legislators not only passed a restrictive abortion ban but they empowered ordinary Texans to interpret and prosecute the ban. That compounds the risk for physicians who provide abortion care, in some sense, because they don’t know the conditions under which they can do so — or who might bring a $10,000 lawsuit against them for doing their jobs.
Meanwhile, the state argued in court that the law was clear enough — and if anyone who should have had an abortion was denied one, it was the physician’s fault, not the law’s or the state’s.
“Physicians have been begging for guidance […] since SB 8 went into effect,” Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Vox in an interview. “No one from the state has provided any guidance, and in fact the only thing the attorney general’s office has done is file their own lawsuit challenging some guidance from Health and Human Services — the federal department that oversees the practice of medicine — saying that a federal statute called EMTALA which allows abortion care and any other care in an emergency, that that shouldn’t apply in Texas.”
Like in Texas, Indiana’s legislature passed a near-total abortion ban that went into effect on August 1. It’s a hostile state for people who need abortions; medication abortion is illegal, and Attorney General Todd Rokita in June signed a letter opposing an amendment to HIPAA, the federal medical privacy law, which would prevent state officials from accessing information about patients who traveled out of state to get an abortion.
Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, and Kentucky, told Vox in an interview that the lack of clarity in these laws is the point. “These laws, and this new law, are incredibly confusing,” she said. ”Extreme lawmakers are writing these laws intentionally to cause harm, to create chaos and confusion both for providers and for patients.”
Gibron’s organization filed suit in the state Supreme Court to block the law from going into effect pending a case in trial court which would provide clarity specifically around the health exceptions to Indiana’s abortion ban. “It doesn’t stop the ban from going into effect, it simply is asking the court to clarify the health exception and to block the section of the ban that limits healthcare providers’ ability to offer abortions in cases where the health of the pregnant person is threatened,” she said.
Without that clarity, not only are patients risking their lives with a pregnancy and doctors risking their practices, but it could cause a brain drain for reproductive healthcare providers who feel they can’t safely practice in the states where they live. That’s especially grave in a place like Indiana which has the third-highest maternal mortality rate in the country — and it’s increased 58 percent in the past three years.
How pregnant people can be protected under state constitutions
Zurawski v. State of Texas hinged on the testimony of 13 women and two physicians, who told the court about their life- or health-threatening pregnancies, and how difficult it was to get abortion care when they needed it.
Their argument was that although Texas doesn’t have enshrined in the constitution a right to abortion, the plaintiffs and people like them — those who need an abortion for medical reasons — are protected under the state’s constitution.
“Texas’ constitution has a right to life and liberty, plus they have an equal rights amendment — so, that guarantees equal treatment to women and men, something that does not exist in the federal Constitution,” Duane said. “We brought these life, liberty, and equality claims to the Texas state court because that is the source of the rights, is Texas law and the Texas constitution.”
Duane and her team argued for clarification of the law, but they were also arguing, she told Vox, that “the bare minimum that we believe that pregnant people in Texas are entitled to is protection of their life and health, even while they’re pregnant.”
The case will now go to Texas’ appellate court, and then to the state Supreme Court — which, Duane noted, is not known for its progressive stance on abortion.
Other states have used the constitution more overtly to protect the right to abortion; Ohio will hold an election on Tuesday deciding State Issue 1, which could limit the ability to amend the state constitution through further ballot measures — including one that would enshrine the right to abortion in Ohio’s constitution. That measure will be voted on November 7 and would codify Ohioans’ right to ”make and carry out [their] own reproductive decisions.”
Abortion is presently legal in Ohio until viability despite a 2019 law banning the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy. A county court judge stayed that law last year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, ruling that Ohio’s state constitution grants the right to abortion because it gives women equal protection and benefit under the law.