Quit the boring book. That is how you build taste.

Traci Thomas, who runs a podcast about books called The Stacks, was explaining how adults can read more for pleasure. There is no assigned summer list anymore, and no grade at the end, so the task is finding books a reader might actually love.

Then she offered permission to stop. "Save yourself. There are too many books in the world to read books you do not like," Thomas said. "That is called cultivating taste."

She told listeners to put a book down if they keep getting distracted, rolling their eyes, or falling asleep while reading it. Thomas said you can stop if you are not enjoying the book.

Her alternative starts with wandering a library or bookstore and treating booksellers and librarians as matchmakers. Tell them three books you loved, one you hated, and the mood you want next, even if that mood sounds, as Thomas put it, like "a long drive on Christmas Eve," and let them suggest a book.

Thomas also trusts the visual cues of the store. She looks at the books on the front tables and the titles shelved face out, because, she argues, those are the new or interesting picks the staff chose to highlight for that community. The point is to notice what jumps out, then test it.

Once a promising stack is in hand, novelist Kevin Nguyen, author of My Documents and New Waves, suggests reading in small, sequestered windows. Audiobooks while driving, a paper book on the subway, a few pages at school pickup or at the laundromat, instead of games on a phone.

Thomas still keeps a clear cutoff. If the eyes start rolling, save yourself.