#45- 15 Words for Reading & Books

Welcome to episode #45 of The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast! In this episode, I’ll be teaching you 15 phrasal verbs, slang words and idioms all about reading and books. In American culture, there has been a reading revolution in the past few years, where more people than ever are taking an interest into reading (mostly reading physical books). For this reason, it’s important to know vocabulary related to this topic. After listening to this episode and using this Study Guide, you’ll be able to speak about reading and books confidently and be one step closer to speaking English like a native speaker.

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The Study Guide includes:

• Words and definitions
• Example sentences
• Practice Activities
• Transcript

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Transcript

[00:00:00] On this episode of The Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 15 phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms all about reading and books. You'll be learning vocabulary like flip through, jot down, smut, read up on, to dog-ear a page, and more. Let's get to it.

Hey there. Welcome to The Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.

Are you ready to improve your English skills? Let's jump right in.

Hey, hey, hey. Greetings from New York City. Welcome to episode number 45. I'm so excited to be [00:01:00] talking about books and reading today. I absolutely love reading, and I love books too. I'm what you would call a bookworm. This is one of our words for today, and it means someone who loves reading.

I truly love to read. I always have. I have a very large collection of books in my home library on every kind of genre that is out there. I've always loved reading. I guess that maybe is a little bit of the reason why I became an English teacher. But my love for reading is actually not why I picked this topic for this episode.

It's actually because reading has made a huge comeback in the USA. Everybody has gone back to books here. For a long time, people were doing eBooks. People were reading on their phones, their iPads, [00:02:00] and Kindles. In fact, many of our large bookstores went out of business. Barnes & Noble, which is our biggest book retailer, was on the brink of bankruptcy years ago, but then, because of social media and something called BookTok that we're going to talk about, reading has made a huge comeback. We will get into this later in the episode, but now bookstores in the USA are making tons of money. They're growing. We see book cafes all over the place, and they are busy. If you stop at a Barnes & Noble here in New York City, there will be long lines for books. There will be people reading there, drinking coffee while reading. It's a true revolution.

You're gonna hear the 15 words from today's episode very often, especially those of you who are in [00:03:00] university, teaching, or going to grad school. These words are gonna be everywhere around you. But even if you are not a student, you will see these words everywhere on social media.

You'll hear them a lot when you're talking to Americans because many Americans like to talk about TV shows, movies, and books that they are currently into.

I also chose this topic because reading is extremely valuable when it comes to improving your English vocabulary skills. Reading American books helps your vocabulary and your grammar skills. You are immersing yourself in correct grammar without even realizing it.

There are also many good books that are interesting and fun but also helpful for understanding American culture. So what kind of books should you read to improve your English? Well, it largely depends on your level, but overall, I've found [00:04:00] that young adult fiction, which we call YA fiction, is an extremely valuable resource for English learning students. This includes book series like The Hunger Games, for example.

Also, books that are also movies are extremely valuable, mainly because being familiar with the originals can help you while you're reading. I've had a lot of students recommend the book Eat, Pray, Love, for example.

Now, as much as I love the Harry Potter series, I actually wouldn't recommend Harry Potter books unless you're level C1 or C2, which is advanced or proficiency, because these books have many new words that even Americans don't know. When I was reading the Harry Potter books, I had to look up some words that aren't used in American English, only [00:05:00] British English.

Remember that you want to read a book that challenges you but not too much. You should know most of the words on a page with only a few new words. Too many unknown words won't really help you much because you won't understand, you won't remember, and it'll be a little bit overwhelming. I don't recommend that you stop and look up words when you're reading an article.

When you're reading a book, highlight or underline words you don't know, but read straight through the page. See if you can still figure out the main gist, the main meaning of what's happening on the page without looking up those individual words. Some students like to take it slow, and they like to look up new words at the end of one page, two pages, or three pages. Some just write them down and look them up after they have read.

In the study guide for [00:06:00] this episode, I'm going to include a recommended book list that you can use to help you improve your English. Most of the books I have broken down by level. Speaking of the study guide, just to remind you, there's a study guide waiting for you that will help you remember and really learn all of the new vocabulary you've heard in this episode. The study guide has all of the new words plus definitions, example sentences, and practice activities, along with the transcript so that you can follow along. All of the episode study guides are in one folder that makes it easy for you to access all of them whenever new episodes come out. To get the link to that folder, all you have to do is click the link in the episode description.

Okay, so let's talk about the words that you'll be learning in this episode.

A bookworm, bookish, flip through, [00:07:00] thumb through, skim through, tear through, a real page-turner, a plot twist, look up, jot down, romantic man, BookTok, to dog-ear a page, smut, and read up on.

All right. Now I'm going to read you a story that has all of these 15 words in real-life contexts. While I'm reading the story to you, try and listen for these new words and see if you can figure out their meanings based on the context. After the story, we'll go through all of the definitions, and I'll give you some extra examples. Let's get started.

This story is about a young lady named Mia. Mia had [00:08:00] been a bookworm ever since she learned how to read. She spent every free moment reading, and her friends, who mostly weren't bookish like she was, often joked that she lived in the library. She even volunteered at her local bookstore once a week because she just loved being around books.

Not only were books an escape for her from everyday life, but she also loved reading and learning new things. One day, while she was helping organize books at the bookstore, she found an old, dusty novel tucked away in the corner. It looked like someone had left it there many years ago because it definitely wasn't a book that the bookstore sold. She flipped through the pages and saw that it was a rare first edition of a famous fantasy book [00:09:00] that she had heard of but never read. Excited, Mia thumbed through the introduction, trying to see what the book was going to be about. She only had a few minutes before her lunch break ended, so she quickly skimmed through the first chapter.

The story was fascinating, and she couldn't wait to read more. That evening, she curled up in bed and began to tear through the book. It was a real page-turner, full of adventure, magic, and romance. There was even a shocking plot twist in the middle that made her gasp out loud. As she read, she came across a few old-fashioned words that she didn't know, so she looked up their meanings in her dictionary. She also jotted down some interesting quotes in her notebook that she wanted to remember for [00:10:00] later. The book reminded her of the best romantic stories she had seen recommended on BookTok. She couldn't wait to tell her friends about it. She was so interested in the book that, without realizing it, she had accidentally dog-eared a few pages that she wanted to go back to.

"Oops," she whispered, smoothing them out.

She usually hated messing up the pages of books, but she had been so caught up in the story that she didn't have time to grab a bookmark.

As she reached the final chapter, she found something unexpected. The book contained a secret love letter hidden between the pages. It looked like it had been written decades ago. The note described a romance just as dramatic as the stories in her favorite smut novels. Mia couldn't believe her luck. She had found a [00:11:00] forgotten treasure—a love story hidden in an amazing book. Maybe she was meant to discover it.

At that moment, she decided she would also read up on the history of the book's author because who knew what other fun and exciting secrets might be waiting for her?

The end.

Okay, so let's review all of the new vocabulary that you just heard in the story.

Here we go.

First up, we have the term "bookworm." You heard me explain this a bit at the beginning of the episode when I described myself as a bookworm. A bookworm is someone who loves reading and reads as often as possible. The origin of the word bookworm is that sometimes, in the past, you would open up old [00:12:00] books and see a little worm hanging out inside. These worms would damage the books, actually. So it was pretty clear that they loved to eat books—devour books—and so symbolically, that's why we call avid readers bookworms.

For example:
 "My sister is such a bookworm; she always has her nose in a book."

If you've ever seen Beauty and the Beast and heard the first song of the movie, where Belle is in the town, you'll hear one of the lines describing her as having her nose stuck in a book. That's an expression we use: someone's nose is always in a book or stuck in a book. So, Belle would be the perfect example of a bookworm.

Next up, we have the word "bookish."

Okay, so bookish is very similar to bookworm. Bookworm is a [00:13:00] noun, while bookish is an adjective. Bookish describes someone who loves books, loves reading, or enjoys anything related to books. This word could describe someone who is very quiet and prefers reading rather than engaging with other people.

For the most part, it's very similar to bookworm. However, let me give you an example of how we would use it differently.

For bookworm, I said, "My sister is a bookworm." People are called bookworms.

But with bookish, for example, we would say:
"He's always reading or talking about literature. He's very bookish."

This is a descriptive word—again, it's an adjective—so we use it differently than we would use bookworm.

Next up, we have the phrasal verb "flip through."

To flip through something means to quickly look at the pages of something without reading [00:14:00] it in detail. We can flip through a book, a file, or a packet of study resources or materials, but it has to be something physical.

If you have a textbook and you're trying to study, you can flip through it—meaning you quickly look at the pages but don’t really read in detail.

For example:
 "I flipped through the novel before deciding whether or not to buy it."

I'm giving you four phrasal verbs in a row that end with the word "through," and they are very similar to each other with slight differences.

We just did "flip through." Now, let’s do "thumb through."

As you know, the thumb is the shortest finger on your hand, and thumbs are very important. [00:15:00] Typically, when we thumb through a book, we use our thumbs—but not always.

To thumb through something means to turn the pages of a book quickly, often to find something specific. So, flip through is to quickly look through a book, but thumb through is when we're looking for something specific.

Let’s use a textbook again: say you want to find the page that talks about present perfect tense. You quickly thumb through the book, specifically looking for that one thing.

For example:
 "He thumbed through the textbook to find the chapter on verb tenses."

Again, we thumb through something physical. If we have an eBook or a digital file, we can’t really thumb through or flip through it.

However, "skim through" is a little bit different.

One of the things you learn in English when it comes to reading is the skill of skimming. [00:16:00]

Skimming is when you look through written material, focusing only on the main points. That’s what we mean by skim through. To skim through something means to read something quickly, focusing only on the main points.

For example:
 "I skimmed through the introduction before diving into the main story."

Unlike flip through and thumb through, you can skim through both physical and digital documents. You can skim through an eBook or an email from your boss. In fact, this is a very popular way to use skim through. If you get a really long email at work, and you just want to find the main points because it's too long to read in detail, you skim through it.

Next, we have "tear through."

To tear through a book means to read it very quickly, often because it's exciting or interesting. [00:18:00]

I want to emphasize something here. Flip through, thumb through, and skim through are ways to go through a book quickly but without reading every word. However, to tear through a book means to read the entire book quickly because you're excited.

This happens when you get a really interesting book. For me, it was when I got the Harry Potter books—I probably read them all within two or three days because I didn’t want to put them down. That’s what it means to tear through a book.

For example:
 "She tore through the entire trilogy in just one weekend."

A trilogy is a set of three books or three movies, like The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Because the last four words were similar, I'm just gonna go over them again. Quickly flip through: you're looking quickly through a book without reading in detail. You wanna know what this book's about? Let me look through. Cool. Looks good. Thumb through: turn the pages very quickly but to look for something specific. You forgot where a certain section is, so you're gonna thumb through the whole book. These two have to be done with physical books.

[00:19:00] Skim through: you read the book quickly, only looking for main points. So this is again when we wanna summarize something. This can be done with physical or digital copies. Tear through: when we read a book completely, but we do it quickly because it's so good.

All right, no more phrasal verbs with "through." Let's get to the next word, which is "a real page-turner." A real page-turner. This is an expression that we use to describe a very exciting, very engaging book that's hard to put down. We wanna keep reading it and reading it and reading it until it's done.

For example, "That thriller was a real page-turner. I stayed up all night reading it."

Next up, we have the expression "a plot twist." This is a word that is very common [00:20:00] when you talk about any kind of story. It could be a Broadway show, it could be a book, it could be a movie. But it means an unexpected development, a turn of events, a twist in the plot or the story—something we really didn't expect to happen, and we gasp. It shocked us. For example, "The plot twist at the end of Shutter Island completely shocked me."

Next, we have the phrasal verb "look up." This is a very common phrasal verb. In fact, I would say this is probably in the top 25 most common phrasal verb lists. More than likely, you've heard it. More than likely, you know what it means, but just in case—"to look up" means to search or research specifically. This is done for words, facts, or pieces of information.

So in a [00:21:00] classroom setting, we would typically tell students, "Okay, try not to look up too many words in the dictionary during class." I usually tell my students when they're reading something in class, "Don't look up these words in the dictionary. Try and figure them out through the context."

Next up, we have a really cool phrasal verb: "jot down." This means to write something quickly for referencing it again in the future. It's kind of like taking notes, except you are jotting something down. So your teacher says something, you read something in a book or in your textbook—you're gonna jot it down. You're putting it down quickly for future reference.

And "jot down" does not have to be writing physically. It could be typing something on your phone, on your computer, in a program, etc. For example, [00:22:00] "I jotted down some notes about the main themes of the book."

Next up, we have a new slang word—very, very new in the past few years—called "romantasy." Romantasy is a genre that blends romance and fantasy elements. These books have taken over the book universe. These are pretty much like Game of Thrones, but a love story, or Lord of the Rings, but a love story. And a lot of times, we call these "spicy" books because they have a lot of love scenes, a lot of sex scenes—they're very sexually heavy. And honestly, they have taken over the USA.

One famous book series is ACOTAR (A Court of Thorns and Roses). These books are about fairies and love stories, and this is [00:23:00] one of the most famous books that really set this off on BookTok, which is our next word.

BookTok is a slang word, and it refers to the community on TikTok that's dedicated to discussing and recommending books. So because I'm a bookworm, when I open up TikTok or even Instagram, there's always someone talking about how amazing a book is that they read. They're doing really cool videos about books to recommend, and so BookTok is really what's responsible for this resurgence in reading physical books in the United States.

I read an article not too long ago, which is actually what made me solidify this topic for the podcast. And the article talked about how BookTok and Barnes & Noble have just been at the top of this reading revolution. So it's been really cool.

Let me give you two examples for romantasy and BookTok. For [00:24:00] example, "These romantasy novels have the perfect mix of magic and love." A BookTok example would be, "I've found so many great book recommendations thanks to BookTok."

The next expression is "to dog-ear a page." This is an interesting expression. This is when you fold down the corner of a page in order to mark your place.

If you've never heard of a bookmark, a bookmark is usually a rectangular piece of paper, or some of them are metal, some of them are plastic. They're meant to keep your place in a book. But when you don't have a bookmark, it's very common to fold down the corner of the page so that you can remember where you are. We say "to dog-ear a page," and it's because when you fold it down, it looks like the ear of a dog—the little flappy [00:25:00] dog ear.

For example, "I try not to dog-ear pages, but sometimes I forget my bookmark."

Next up, we have the word "smut." This is a slang word, and it's a very popular slang word. Smut refers to romance novels that contain explicit sex scenes. So if you know the movies Fifty Shades of Grey, that entire series came from a series of books, right? That book would be considered smut because it's a very sexually charged, sexually heavy book.

For example, "She loves reading smut, especially when it has a good plot."

And lastly, we have a three-word phrasal verb: "read up on." [00:26:00] "Read up on" means to read a lot about a specific topic because we want to learn more about it.

I really, really like this phrasal verb because it's very specific. We often use it to replace the word "research." If you are anything like me, I love to learn. I love to watch documentaries. I love to research topics, which is why a lot of times you'll notice in my episodes I give background information.

For example, "I need to read up on mythology before I start this fantasy series." "I need to read up on New York City before I go on vacation."

All right, so that concludes the 15 new phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang from this episode. I really hope that this episode taught you some good vocabulary, but I also hope that it encouraged you [00:28:00] to go read something.

Here's my homework for you. Here's my challenge for you, okay? Go read something in English. If you can't find a book in English, remember, you can purchase eBooks. They usually have some free ones, some cheap ones in the Apple Store or on Kindle with Amazon. But if you can't find a book in English, go read an article. Write down a few vocabulary words and then use those vocabulary words throughout the week.

The same is true with the words that you learn here. Go use the study guide, and then pick five words from this episode. Try to create some sentences yourself. Write them down somewhere, text a friend, and then make it your goal to use them this week. The more you use them, the more confident you'll be and the better you'll get.

All right, see you next week.

[00:29:00] Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of The Real Life English with Gabby podcast. Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English learning. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a review.

Thanks so much for tuning in.