Can Reading Make You Happier?

Can reading bring you happiness? This can easily turned into a thousand page long harvard-graded essay with both sides arguing back and forth. Let’s spare you that nine-hundred-and-ninety pages of reasoning and I will tell you why reading can make you happier in less than one page!

Have you ever found a good book that you cannot put down, and you are very fascinated by the plot twist or how resilient the heroine is in her appalling circumstances? When we read, we enter into a different world, a world the author created and wants us to be a part of. As we watch and feel what the characters feel and go through in the story, we also feel their pain and joy and that is the effect of escapism.

When we read, we escape from our world into a new crafted world. We entered into a happier and more adventurous place because the books we tend to gravitate towards are usually stories that we want to live or wish we can live; having a love affair as a royal in a far away countryside castle, or a scandalous detective who is about to unravel why the candy store owner mysterious went missing overnight and left nothing but a note.

Whatever we are reading, we enter into a new world and we forget our own circumstances, our problems, our responsibilities, and we live as characters in our books. We learn new ways of thinking and new perspectives in life through those characters, and when the last page has turned and the story is over, we become inspired by these fictional humans. Every page turned and every finished book, we gained new skills and new ways of looking at life; it is like unlocking new levels, treasures, and tools to do this thing called - ‘life’. In simple words, we are called to learn from stories that went ahead of us or out of our reality so we can be inspired to live a happier and more fulfilling life.

Here is a list of good reads that will captivate you into another world and make you forget about your own little reality... Enjoy!