My Reading Frenzy

The Connection Between Reading and Mental Health - Confessions of a Reading Addict

Without question, reading is beneficial to my mental health, especially in 2020 when there are so many unexpected challenges. I find that reading almost anything from fantasy and sci-fi to murder mysteries to informative non-fiction is helpful to me. (While my need to be informed about local and national news compels me to read or listen to some news, I do not find my mental state is buoyed by this type of intake. I hope this will change after Tuesday's Presidential election.)

 

 

 

 

The Research

A 2008 study in the UK showed "Healthy reading has a place in stepped care models for improving mental health at both community and primary care levels. As well as being used as an adjunct therapy it could, in some cases, be an alternative to antidepressant prescribing and help reduce waiting lists for more staff-intensive psychological therapies." Their definition of "healthy reading" refers to texts of various types that help the patient understand and develop techniques for coping with mild to moderate mental health concerns.

Another study conducted at the University of Liverpool in 2012 explored the benefits of all types of reading on the mental health of the subjects. These studies, conducted at the highest levels of research, illustrate what many readers already know, but may not be able to verbalize: Reading is a pathway to improved mental health. 

If personal anecdotes and professional studies aren't convincing enough, Psychology Today touts the positive impact reading has on mental health. In his article, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Rob Whitley concludes, "books are an invaluable but underutilized resource that can increase empathy, enhance recovery and inspire those with mental health difficulties. As such, reading should be encouraged for everybody, but particularly those with mental illness—whether through formal bibliotherapy groups or individual prompting from family, friends or clinicians." The article, like the University of Liverpool study explores all types of reading as a form of therapy. 

 

My Experience

Reading is my primary hobby. Like any hobby I derive a great deal of pleasure from the endeavor and it is a pursuit I have honed and developed ever since I learned to read. Rarely does a day go by that I do not sit on the couch or in my comfy chair to read for at least 30 minutes. 

Each evening, I try to carve out up to two hours to immerse myself in one of the books I am currently reading. I find I get the most out of sustained reading during which I can interact deeply with the text while separating myself from the worries of the real world, both mine and society in general. At this time I eschew social media (which I can find agitating before it is time to sleep), as well as interaction with others. This means I avoid texting and phone calls when possible.

Even during a hectic vacation I like to read at the end of an exciting day. My most rejuvenating vacations are those in which site-seeing is minimal and reading on the beach or in front of a fire are the primary activities.

I usually have two books I am reading in paper form - one fiction, one non-fiction; one I am reading on my Kindle; and one or two I am listening to (one in the car, one while exercising).

When I sit down to read, sometimes I read a bit from each book and other times I jump in for as long as I am able to whichever one best fits what I need that day. Some days I need escapist fantasy or romance, others I want to connect to the real world through a memoir or a historical tome or social commentary, and on others I seek YA or middle grade stories. Whichever the choice, in I go, only to resurface when I have sufficiently fed my mind and soul.

Believe it or not, for me the same feeling I get after a good yoga session or invigorating walk or run also comes when I finish a book or come out of a long reading session. I can feel the release of endorphins during a physical workout in my chest. I am able to breath more easily and deeply when I have used my body. The use of my mind while reading gives me a similar rush followed by deep calming breaths that I know are making their way into my brain healing me from the day's stresses. (This may not be a scientifically supportable concept, but I feel it.) When life prevents me from immersive reading over a number of days I know I am less patient with a shorter temper, so I try not to let this happen.

I know I am healthier when I make time to read. Both the studies and my own experiences show me how important it is for me to include reading time every day.

 

Next week I am planning to write about the angst I sometimes associate with reading. 

 

How do you benefit from reading?

 

 

What I've Read - What I am Reading - October 19, 2020

This was not a great week for reading as we spent a ton of time at the house painting, fixing, scrubbing, sweeping, trashing, and recycling to get it ready to sell.  

 

Read:

I read Megan Whalen Turner's 6th book in The Thief series, Return of the Thief, a book, among others, which I have been looking forward to seeing published. While this was certainly worth the wait, 3 years is too long for me to go between series books. My only dissatisfaction with this final in the series is that there were too many details it would have been helpful to have remembered from the previous book. My own fault of course. I could have reread or tried to find a detailed summary filled with spoilers, but I didn't, so I went into this one without enough recollection and therefore felt a little lost at times. I'd like to reread all six books sometime because I loved them all individually and think the continuity would make them even more powerful.

I also read Serpentine by Philip Pullman, which I thought was a novella. It was a short story in a lovely little illustrated book. I read it twice. The author's note at the end indicated that the ideas just kept pushing at him so he went ahead and wrote it. The story is about Lyra and Pan after The Subtle Knife during which (spoiler ahead) they separate without dying, though it is painful. This new characteristic of their relationship will change the way they experience the world. 

I also finished listening to The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell. I did quite a bit of listening while I was painting.

 

Reading:

I found myself with a few down moments over the past week, with only my Kindle on hand so I started The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I sought this book on NetGalley after having read How to Stop Time. I would have discussed this one in my post on time-travel books if it had not been focused on two of my favorite authors of the sub-genre rather than all the time-travel works I have read.

Tonight I will leap back in to The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty to finish this week.

 

Listening:

I started Meaty by Samantha Irby. This is one of her earlier titles, but she says in a forward that the essays have been re-edited and polished up for this re-release. So far it is just as hilarious as I had expected. M. asked a few times why my painting was so funny. I think he might like her work.

I am not sure what is up next after this listen. Any suggestions?

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?

How to Incorporate Big Books into Your Reading Life or I Like Big Books

I love to read. I love to read books from many genres, though as you know I am particularly fond of time-travel science fiction and mysteries. (I'll write about fantasy favorites soon.) Despite my love of reading, reading, reading, I do no seek long books. I gravitate toward books that come in under 400 pages for the most part, but sometimes I am tempted by a story that is much longer. Sometimes, as happened in college, I am assigned something longer. Sometimes long books can be daunting even when the story is one I want to read because I think I will enjoy it. I have therefore read a number of LONG novels over my reading life and have some advice for those who may actively avoid big books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Take notes: Depending on how long the reading takes, it is possible for even the most attentive reader to lose track of significant details. Taking notes can take the form of separate notes with page numbers for reference in case you want to return to a plot point, character, or paragraph that seems important. Or you may opt to use sticky flags to mark pages that have been annotated in the book (No gasping necessary, it is ok to write in a book you own.), or on a sticky note. 
2. Break up the reading with shorter works in between: If you decide to read a big book in chunks, with other shorter works peppered in, it may be even more important to take notes to refer back to when picking the big book up again. While this is not my preferred method I have used it when I cannot give a big book the sustained attention it needs. 
3. Choose one long period of time to focus on one big book: If you have travel planned, bring just one long book to read on the entire trip. If your winters are cold and you are indoors and read lots anyway, use this time to focus on just one book. I usually do this in the summer time when we do not have school. I gain both time and increased concentration when I am not distracted by working all day. Pesky job.
4. Read with a friend or book club - If you read a big book with a friend or book club you may be more motivated to continue knowing there are opportunities for discussion as you read. Instead of meeting up or chatting just once about a book, a long book offers opportunities for multiple checks ins, which may be incentive to read regularly and a fun opportunity to socialize.
5. Read a book rather than an ebook - I feel much a greater sense of accomplishment when I see the pages go by than when I see the "15%" at the bottom of the ebook. This is personal to me, but it can also limit when and where I read since a big book is by definition unwieldy and not necessarily convenient for all reading settings.  

 

Some of the big books I have read over the years in no particular order:

• The first four books in the Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean M. Auel: I am not sure what about the first book prompted someone to recommend it to me as a young teen, but I read and loved them. This is not a series I will be rereading. I am not sure the investment of time would be worth it.
• Les Misérables by Victor Hugo: After seeing the musical on Broadway, I was bound and determined to read the book. It took me an entire summer. Maybe the summer after my junior year in high school. I do not remember. I loved it and am glad to have read it, even the extensive detail about the sewers of Paris.
• War and Peace AND Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: I read these for college courses. One was definately in a European literature class and the other was for my junior seminar. I am not sure which was which. I do remember War and Peace was during the fall semester of my junior year (along with a number of other novels) and I was not able to finish before the winter break, but I did finish!  Both are books I took notes while reading to be able to discuss details in class and keep all the Russian names straight.
• Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: Often the "books" of the Lord of the Rings series are split into three separate books. I did not read them that way. A friend who was appalled I had not read the books at age 29, bought me one big tome. (I had not read them because I was traumatized by Gollum after reading The Hobbit and watching the 1977 cartoon version.)  I had no idea they came any other way. It took me a few months because the beginning of the year in a teacher's life is often more hectic than later. I remember feeling lost after finishing since I had been immersed in Tolkien's world for so long. (This is often referred to as a book hangover.)
• The Baroque Cycle: Quicksilver (2003), The Confusion (2003) and System of the World (2004) by Neal Stephenson. These were a doozy. Theoretically, I would like to read them again one after the other. Realistically, I am not sure I have it in me until retirement.
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: This one was a recent listen for me. I had a paperback on my shelf on and off a few times, once from the library, once from a Little Free Library, and once from my father, but in the end I listened to it over many weeks of driving and I enjoyed it immensely this way. 

 

Big books in my future reading life:

Fall by Neal Stephenson

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

I think one of these will probably be in the mix during my winter break this year and the other in the spring or summer of 2021.

 

What big books have you read?

What I've Read - What I am Reading - October 12, 2020

This was a random reading week. At first I had NO time, then we arrived in Florida and I had TIME.   

 

Read:

Between the plane and beach morning, I finished If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane. I appreciated the main characters progression from someone who tied her identity to her male partner to seeing her value as an independent person. 

I started and finished The Geometry of Holding Hands by Alexander McCall Smith on the beach on Tuesday. This is Smith's 13^th Isabel Dalhousie novel. I have read them all. The descriptions of old Edinburgh, Scotland in these books are the main reason I wanted to visit there on our trip to the UK in June 2019. I think I remember this series being touted as mysteries at first, but the mysteries were generally of a domestic nature as in people trying to find lost relatives or Isabel getting involved in solving someone else's problems. The content of the stories has not changed, but I don't see them in the mystery genre any longer. 

Next I started and then finished Beach Read by Emily Henry. I thought this was going to be a lighter read than it turned out to be, but it was also more of a romance than I was expecting. I am not sure who commissions the design of book covers, but this one was misleading. I am not mad about it, but I don't feel like the cover did credit to the important work the two main characters did as they wrote books unlike those they had written previously. (I don't think the title is quite right either. I might have called it The Writing Bet or Two Authors: Two Lives, or something with more gravitas.) I embraced the meta nature of a novel about two novelists trying to approach new genres and topics that turned out to be personally therapeutic. This book spoke to the ways that writing about challenges in our lives can help us to confront them in realistic and healthy ways. 

Reading:

Now that I am home for a good long time, probably until Christmas time, I will finish The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty. I also started Megan Whalen Turner's 6th book in The Thief series, Return of the Thief, a book, among others, which I have been looking forward to seeing published. 

 

Listening:

In the past week I have not listened to much at all. During the time I did spend driving, I continued The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell.

When I finish this, I will move to Meaty by Samantha Irby. This is one of her earlier titles, but I loved both We are Never Meeting in Real Life and Wow, No Thank You to the point that I cried tears of laughter, so I think it will be an excellent investment of time. 

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?

What I am Looking Forward to Being Published in 2020 and 2021

Because I have a NetGalley account, I have the opportunity to read books before they are released. Access to NetGalley is available to librarians, educators, booksellers, and bloggers as a way to offer e-gallies to those who are in a position to purchase and recommend books to others. As a librarian and blogger I both buy books for my collection and talk to students about new books I think they will like. And write about what I have read and am reading here.  

NetGalley offers many books, I cannot read everything I have access to. I try to prioritize by reading those I am thinking about purchasing for the collection followed by books in which I have a personal interest. Often new books fit both categories. The site asks members to give feedback by answering a few quick questions with the option to link to an online review or comment directly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Books I am looking forward to in 2020:

• Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (October 6): (Ok, so I am three days late on this one, but I wanted to include it anyway because - Eugenides! If you know him from the other books you know why this matters. If not, I suggest starting with the first book. This new one is the 6th in The Thief series that started in 1996. 
• Swamp Thing: Twin Branches by Maggie Stiefvater, illustrated by Morgan Beem (October 13): This is Stiefvater's first graphic novel. I am looking forward to how she handles a different format. Stiefvater is another author whose work I will always buy because I want to revisit and remember regularly.
• His Dark Materials: Serpentine by Philip Pullman (October 15- Yes, a Thursday.): In this novella, Pullman brings us the story of Lyra and her daemon Pan after the events of The Amber Spyglass during which their relationship was fundamentally changed. (No spoilers here.) I am excited for any return to Lyra's Oxford and it is nice to have this while waiting for the 3rd installment in the Book of Dust trilogy (for which there is currently no release date) AND it is illustrated by Tom Duxbury.
• Giant Days - Volume 14 by John Allison and Max Sarin (October 27): Graduation time is here so this will be the last volume of adventures for Esther, Daisy, and Susan (though she still has a few more years of medical school to go). This volume contains a post-graduation story. I wonder if they are experimenting to see if readers want more or if a graceful end is better.
• Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon (November 17): I am happy that Frankly in Love was well received so Yoon could publish another novel. This is also a rom-com in which Sunny tells a lie to impress a girl and hi-jinx ensue.
• How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (The Folk of the Air) by Holly Black (November 24): This is a prequel to The Cruel Prince, exploring Cardan's days as child in Elfhame. Black is one of my "always" authors. As in, I will always purchase her work because I want to keep her books on my shelf AND this one is illustrated by Covina Rai.
• Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline (November 24): I loved Ready Player One, therefore I am apprehensive about this one. I don't envy any author who publishes a book that is loved by so many since the pressure to produce an equally fantastic sequel is massive. I did not like his second book Armada, but am hopeful that a return to the world of Ready Player One is better. 

 

 

Books I am looking forward to in 2021:

• Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert (March 9): This is the 3rd in trilogy about three sisters. I read the second book Take a Hint, Dani Brown before the first Get a Life, Chloe Brown. There were a few details from the first book in the second, but that did not prevent me from understanding and enjoying the story. I just went back and read the first and everything was cleared up.
• A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload by Cal Newport (March 2): Newport is the author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism along with a regular blog and now a podcast.
• Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (May 25)- I started with Daisy Jones and the Six then found The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I may jump into more of her back list while waiting for May. I don't know too much about this one, but the blurb says it starts at a party thrown by four siblings.
• Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson (April 6)- Lawson's books are hilarious and healing and a reminder that so many are living with chronic illness or mental health concerns AND she just opened an independent bookstore the Nowhere Bookshop. Both Let's Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy were fabulous to listen to as Lawson reads them. I am so looking forward to this one I will probably use an Audible credit for it.
• The Box in the Woods (Truly Devious) by Maureen Johnson (April 27): Stevie Bell solved the mystery of the century in the Truly Devious trilogy but now there is strange goings-ons at Camp Wonder Falls and the owner asks Stevie for help. I like the idea of an on-going YA mystery series since I read so many of these sorts of books.
• The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang (August 17): I like to read romance for the happy ending. The challenges in getting there are what make the reading interesting. Both The Kiss Quotient and The Bride Test took the romance tropes and mixed them up with diverse characters and unexpected twists for two charming, unpredictable stories. I think this one will be just as satisfying.

 

What new books are you looking forward to?

What I've Read - What I am Reading - October 5, 2020

I had much more time this week to read and listen than last week.   

 

Read:

I finished The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver. Overall I liked the story and was attracted to the magical realism elements of Lydia's experience with grief at the loss of her fiancé to a car accident. 

 

I read two graphic novels:

I Was Their American Dream - by Malaka Gharib. I ordered this title for my library back in the Spring, but with the delivery delays since we were not in school, I did not get my hands on it until just a few weeks ago. I was reminded to look for it after I watched an "In conversation" between Gharib and Robin Ha (author of Almost American Girl) through One More Page Books. Gharib's story explores her early life as a Filipino Egyptian American, while Ha's story is about her move to the US from South Korea as a teen. Reading the novels side by side offers the reader the opportunity to observe the varied experiences of young people who were not born in the US. 

AND

Go with the Flow by Karen Schneemann and Lily Williams. A quartet of sophomore friends start a movement in their school to eradicate stigmas associated with periods. Their fight revolves around the lack of pads and tampons in the school bathrooms while there seems to be no lack of funding for new football uniforms. The book makes many excellent points about the shame that is thrust upon women and in this case particularly teen girls for a natural, bodily function. 

I finished Eat a Peach by chef David Chang. I gave it 4.5 stars (out of 5) because I appreciated his honesty and insights into the restaurant world from his perspective.

 

Reading:

I am continuing to read The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty. Now I am getting to be embarrassed not to have finished. And I won't in the next week either since I am traveling and the book is too big to carry when I can just take one paperback and my Kindle. 

I am about 1/8 of the way into If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane. This is the paperback I am taking for the plane and the beach. 

 

Listening:

I started The Year of Living Danishly, by Helen Russell. Though she has not mentioned her or the book by name, I think Russell owes a structural and inspirational debt to Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. Russell's husband is offered a position at Lego headquarters in Denmark for a year. They agree to relocate and Russell uses the experience to study life in Denmark, which is allegedly the happiest country in the world. The book is organized by month starting when they arrive in January. In each month Russell, a journalist, explored one aspect of Danish life from gender equality to leisure pursuits to work-life satisfaction. I am most of the way through July, fast approaching August. 

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?

What is Magical Realism?

I have just finished reading The Two Lives of Lydia Bird (2020) by Josie Silver, which prompted me to think about magical realism as a genre and revisit other books I have read in the genre. I found this book after reading and enjoying One Day in December (2018), which is not magical realism. I did not know this was magical realism until I started reading. Magical realism is not a genre I seek, but always like.

While I could describe what magical realism is well enough for you to understand, I found a satisfying definition and a discussion of the types of magical realism in this article in O Magazine from 2019. I particularly like this description offered by Ramona Ausubel, an award winning author:

"In other words, magical realism can be defined as stories rooted in reality—with a touch of, well, magic. They are fictional tales probable enough that they could actually happen, with a bit of whimsy.."

 

 

The first I read was Beloved by Toni Morrison as a junior in college. Sethe, the main character, escaped from slavery 18 years before, but has not escaped the horrors of that life. She is haunted by the ghost of her unnamed daughter and also by the memories of her past. The novel's realistic elements are a window to the experiences of someone formerly enslaved, while the magical elements ask the reader to accept that we cannot know or understand all the mental, emotional, and physical repercussions for someone who has suffered and lived on as Sethe has. The book is both painful and beautiful.

Another from college is The Metamorphosis (1915), a novella by Franz Kafka in which Gregor Samsa wakes one morning to find he has turned into an insect. There is no explanation for why or how this has happened. Samsa goes about his business to find there are professional and personal repercussions to his transformation. 

I also seem to remember having read The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, but cannot remember much of the story. (This will need to go on a list of novels to re-read.) The book appeared on all the lists of magical realism I looked at to jog my memory of what I have read. 

Joanne Harris is an author who seems to specialize in magical realism as seen in Chocolat (2000), which is also an excellent movie, The Girl with No Shadow (US title) (2009), Peaches for Monsieur le Curé (2013), and The Strawberry Thief (2019). I have read the first two, while the other two are on my extensive TBR list. The stories take place in a small French village, Lansquenet-sous-Tannes and Paris and feature Vianne Rocher a chocolate maker with a talent for guessing every patron's favorite. 

I have read three novels in which the emotions of cooking are a significant element. In Like Water for Chocolate (1989), by Laura Esquivel, the emotions Tita is feeling as she cooks a dish are then transferred to those who eat the dish. The opposite is the case for Rose in The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2011), by Aimee Bender, who can taste the feelings of the cook. This is also true of Lumi in A Taste of Sage (2020), a romance by Yaffa S. Santos.

A.S. King is that rare case of author who I seek out because of the magical elements. I have read, in the order I read them:

• Ask the Passengers (2012) - Astrid sends thoughts and questions up to passing airplanes, in which a passenger hears and is prompted to their own introspection. 
• Reality Boy (2013) - This one is not magical realism, but an excellent book.
• Please Ignore Vera Dietz (2010) - This one is also just regular realism, but also highly recommended. 
• Glory O'Brien's History of the Future (2014) - Over night Glory gains the power to see a person's past and future in a glance.
• Dig (2019) - This one is my favorite. The story is told from the point of view of 5 teens and follows a twisty path all connected to the Hemmings family potato farm. This one is difficult to sum up in a few sentences. It is well worth keeping up with the twists and turns. 
• The Year we Fell From Space (2019) - This is a middle grade novel while the others are YA. (I was never prevented from reading any book I chose, and have adopted this philosophy as well, so if you want to know the age range for any book for young people there are resources like Common Sense Media to help guide you.)

And as I mentioned here, I recently acquired a copy of Still Life With Tornado (2016) that I am looking forward to reading soon. 

 

Other titles I have read and remember reading are:

• Belzhar (2014) - Meg Wolitzer - At a therapeutic boarding school, journal writing takes students to the alternate world of Belzhar.
• In Five Years (2020) - Rebecca Serle - One night Dannie skips ahead five years to a life she is not expecting, then wakes back in her time with mysteries she spends the next five years figuring out.
• Long Way Down (2019) - Jason Reynolds - As Will takes the elevator down toward a life changing act he is visited by ghosts of friends and family who help him to see what might come of his decision. This really does not do this novel in verse justice. I highly recommend just reading this one to feel the full power of the story. 
• Paris on Repeat (2020) - Amy Bearce - This is a Groundhog Day story in which Eve relives the same day of her 8th grade trip to Paris until she is able to fix some mistakes and take some risks to make the day "perfect."
• Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) - Zora Neale Hurston - Hurston is one of the authors from the past I would most like to meet. When I was looking at lists of magical realism novels, this one was a surprise, especially since I used to teach it and read it numerous times in the 15 years I was an English teacher. But in thinking about it, I realized the influence of nature on Janie brings in magical elements.  

 

While I don't care for the click-baity nature of this title, "11 questions you're too embarrassed to ask about magical realism," the content is well research and informative about the origins and progression of magical realism as a separate genre.

 

What are your favorite works of magical realism?