Reading Makes You Happy
For many weeks now I have been working like a Trojan, often late into the night, grabbing every spare minute to focus on one particular job.
By which I mean I’ve spent a lot of time curled up with a book.
I feel very lucky that one of my jobs is to read. Often novels, but also non-fiction, either to write reviews or – my favourite – to interview the writers.
May is the month of the Auckland Writers Festival which sees upwards of 60,000 people attending events at the Aotea Centre. Last year broke records with 85,000 enthusiastic readers enjoying the opportunity to meet their favourite authors and find new ones.
Not just Auckland – heaps of our towns and cities hold festivals dedicated to books and those who love them. For the last decade, I’ve tootled about the country as a writer, as a reader, and as an “interlocuter” – the person on stage who interviews the author and wrangles questions from the audience.
For this year’s Auckland festival I’ll be chatting with four writers. This means reading their latest books and having a good forage around in their back catalogues. I’ve been gleefully working my way through a stack in the hallway, too many for the bedside table to hold.
Here’s what I can tell you even before I meet their authors. Reading makes me happy.
The ancient Greeks inscribed “A Healing Place For The Soul” above the door to the library of Thebes and I have to say, this intense period of reading has done excellent things for my spirits.
I always read, but not usually a book a week. I’m slow and it has taken some effort to pick up the pace. Mostly, I’m getting there by forcing myself to put down my phone and turn off the TV. Less social media, fewer newspaper apps, evenings deliberately spent bingeing a book, not a series.
Obvious stuff, right? And there’s been a genuine impact on my wellbeing. I find the news of the world and the direction it’s taking deeply worrisome and, while I want to stay informed and play my part as a good citizen, it’s perhaps unhealthy to watch each fresh horror unfold in real time.
Reading is an immersive experience – the rest of the world is out of view – so there’s respite from the madness. Though a novel is not escapism. World issues are right there – power, greed, megalomania, human cruelty, injustice, betrayal – though the threat isn’t immediate or personal.
Researchers talk about “mirror neurons” – that when we read about experiences, we draw on the same brain networks as when we are doing those things ourselves. A rehearsal, building resilience, for what we might do, think or feel in our real lives.
I’ve been reading about violence, societal collapse, loneliness, heartbreak and terror from 400BC to a few years into our future. I’ve also been reading about love, hope and connection in these very same books.
All of which has given some perspective to the world I come back to when I put the book down.
Reading also broadens our vocabulary, boosts knowledge, stimulates our imagination and improves critical thinking. The near-meditative state can lower blood pressure and lead to better sleep. Plus we don’t have to please a book, or worry what it thought of us.
About the only thing you don’t get from a book – given it’s a solitary occupation – is social connection. Which is why we’ve invented libraries, book clubs and festivals. See you there.