Time for the Messy Summer Reading Club
It's the first email of Reading While Parenting from A Wonderful Mess
Hi there! If you are confused about why you are seeing an email from me on a Saturday, let’s catch up. The How to Read in Parenthood guide came out a couple of weeks ago. It was just the beginning of exploring the many layers of a messy reading life. A Wonderful Mess is about navigating parenthood with humor, compassion, and common sense. Why wouldn’t we also navigate our reading lives in the same way? Enter Reading While Parenting, a new feature of A Wonderful Mess. It’s the place where we can ask the big and small questions about our reading lives. The seasons of life bring different needs and rhythms, as do the seasons of the calendar, which will be true here too in Reading While Parenting. So just in time for the popsicles, sunscreen, and flip flops, the Messy Summer Reading Club begins today and runs until August 23rd.
The “club” is a weekly Saturday e-mail with tips and ideas to help in this summer reading season. These will be short, because it wouldn’t make sense to send you another essay when trying to support reading books (in fact, this is the longest club email you will get). This is NOT a book club with assigned reading or trying to reach a specific number of books by the end of summer situation. We are just doing some reading, getting ideas, and crowdsourcing when it’s helpful. The club is free for all subscribers of A Wonderful Mess.
Some of the upcoming topics:
More than story times: Libraries are for grown-ups, too
An ode to the bookmark
Are beach reads possible for parents?
Tackling the TBR: Picking what’s next to read
But I can’t pay attention to a book
The A Wonderful Mess Monday essay and monthly roundup is business as usual; nothing is changing there. If this is not your thing, all you need to do is go here and deselect Reading While Parenting. To check out what we are talking about at any time, go here.
Okay, on to the topic of the day—it’s not sexy, but let’s talk about the benefits of planning. I’ve said it before and annoyingly I will say it over and over, you need a plan to read.
I recently shared this on the Substack notes network1:
I tried to make a color-coded calendar yesterday for our summer schedule with four kids in summer camps, work, and travel.
It looks like this.
Even though summer is supposedly the more relaxed part of the year, it can be really busy depending on what you are managing. A little planning is crucial if you want read more than the directions on the sunscreen bottle. One of the reasons, this email arrives on the weekend is to provide a little nudge ahead of the week to plan for this week’s reading.
Two questions to consider:
What I am reading/going to read this week?
When I am going to read this week?
These questions allow you to identify the tasks needed to make those answers a reality:
Requesting books from the library
Hitting the local bookstore
Making sure your e-reader has your next read downloaded
Trading books with friends
Looking up recommendations from your favorite book rec resources
This is the meal planning of reading. You meal plan so you have the right ingredients and know what your making when. Same with books.
A plan is decision for the future instead of a nebulous aspiration. This also helps your brain walk through what you need ahead of time. If you plan on reading the new Emily Henry when you are at the beach with your family, there will be certain things that need to happen to make that real.
Store your book, e-reader, or headphones in an accessible location for your plan i.e. the car, your tote bag of snacks (you know THE snacks2), kitchen table
Picture yourself reading in the setting and time identified. Stay realistical, not fantasizing blissfully drinking a Mai Tai while reading and your toddler manages the baby kite surfing. We’re planning, not manifesting. A little visualizing helps you remember your intention better.
Openly declare your plan. Expecting others to know your secret plan to read your book for during the afternoon nap time when there is a competitive Scrabble game scheduled can lead to conflicts. Open communication puts everyone in a better place to support each other’s goals.
Write it down. We will get into different types of cues in a future post, but writing reading into your calendar or putting it on your to do list is another way to plan ahead.
But what about when the plan goes awry? You had a plan and then someone got sick, the summer camp closed early because they lost power, a nap was refused, and so on. We never have all the information until we get to that moment, it’s part of the excitement of life. So we do the best we can with what we know. Hold the plan lightly. It might give you some new information—like your toddler no longer naps or going to water play area at the science museum will definitely give the whole family a summer illness (IYKYK)3. And that can inform future plans, reading, and otherwise.
The comments section can serve us in many ways.
Have something to suggest that worked for you when planning reading. Share it in the comments.
Read something amazing? Tell us!
Have a reading conundrum, put it in the comments. It might end up being a part of a future club topic.
Looking for some accountability—we can do that, too.
*I am an affiliate of bookshop.org, if you purchase through this link I will earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you)
As always—Just a little reminder: The content on A Wonderful Mess posted by Dr. Kathryn Barbash, PsyD, is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical, clinical, legal, or professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Reliance on any information provided is solely at your own risk. Always seek the advice of your licensed mental health professional or other qualified health provider.
For those unfamiliar, the Notes feature on Substack is like the social media part of the platform.
Nothing with chocolate, it’s summer. You only make that mistake once.
Seriously, so reliable.
I am packing for a trip and I've packed 3 books. There is no way I am going to read all 3, but I get anxious about not having enough to read. Anyone else? I am currently reading Three Days in June by Anne Tyler and packed The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner, and The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett.
My family goes to a lake house every summer with extended family (they can hang out with my kids, too) and I bring a huge stack of books because reading is a priority during that time. When we’re not swimming or making meals the adults are usually sitting in the beach or a porch reading. I love being able to read a book in big gulps, it is so satisfying. Very grateful to have this reading time!