This week we’re joined by Danielle Belton, editor in chief of The Root, and Maiysha Kai, the managing editor of The Glow Up, to talk all things books. More specifically, how to read more of them in the coming year, and how to upgrade your reading list to get you ready. Listen to hear these two voracious readers talk about how they make time to read, how they discover their next great reads, and why it’s so important to branch out when it comes to the types of books you gravitate towards.
Danielle and Maiysha are the hosts of The Root’s new podcast, The Root Presents: It’s Lit!, which we also highly recommend checking out.
Listen to The Upgrade above or find us in all the usual places podcasts are served, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify and iHeartRadio.
Highlights from this week’s episode
From Danielle Belton:
On how to diversify your reading list:
I always encourage people like the first thing you have to have [is] an open mind. Like if you don’t have an open mind like this is going to be a really short exercise for you. You have to be willing to be a little uncomfortable and have your ideas questioned, you know, because that’s what diversifying your reading is all about. It’s about introducing things into your life that you might not normally know about or understand or might not even have a natural curiosity for because you’re just trying to better understand things.
From Maiysha Kai:
On the importance of diversifying your reading list:
I would encourage that curiosity in general about people’s lives, not about race per se, or gender or whatever, but about people’s lives. Because I think that that curiosity naturally drives diversity in your reading. I think that looking at it as exactly that: I’m interested in somebody else’s life, somebody else’s experience. And I think it makes you a better person ultimately.
On how to find your next great read:
I also find books, lead me to other books. And so if I’m writing if I’m reading something that’s historical, then the bibliography of that book will often lead me to a book. Wikipedia will lead you to books all the time, all the time, right? So, yeah, I would say that books beget books. I’m also a huge fan of recommendations like, you know, I love going to a bookstore’s site to see what they’re recommending or Well-Read Black Girl is one of my favourites. They have a book club, but they also have recommendations by year of things, which I started looking at for research, but now also look at for pleasure.
To hear more about how to get more books into your life, listen to the full episode!
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