I read an article the other day in the New Yorker that was titled "Can Reading Make you Happy?" This quote stuck out to me as being SO true:
Reading has been shown to put our brains into a pleasurable trance-like state, similar to meditation, and it brings the same health benefits of deep relaxation and inner calm. Regular readers sleep better, have lower stress levels, higher self-esteem, and lower rates of depression than non-readers. “Fiction and poetry are doses, medicines,” the author Jeanette Winterson has written. “What they heal is the rupture reality makes on the imagination.”
It's a long article, but worth the read. Click here to read it.
Since I was 4 I've reading anything I could get my hands on. It's been a way to go somewhere else, to learn something new. It's like a passport that is only limited by the breadth of the author's imagination.
Tonight, I spent an exhilarating evening at a small independent book store in Houston called Murder by the Book. Kate Morton (writer of The Secret Keeper, The Forgotten Garden) was doing a book signing for her most recent book- The Lake House. I've never been to one of these before and I didn't know what to expect. In fact, I almost didn't go because I was so tired this afternoon that I considered going straight home from the office. But, I decided to suck it up and go because I I had a feeling that I would regret missing it. Ms. Morton's work is not categorized as Romance, but I have really enjoyed her books so I looked forward to meeting her.
I got there really early. The bookstore is a small, independent store that focuses on Mystery/Thriller/Crime novels. It is beautiful inside with well worn comfortable chairs tucked in to little nooks. I sat down to read and wait. About 20 minutes later, a woman wandered over to where I was sitting, and asked me if I was also there for Kate Morton. We struck up a conversation that ended up lasting almost two hours! We talked about books, reading, writing and life. She told me about authors she is reading, I told her about the ones I'm reading and we both were writing furiously in our notebooks as we talked.
I felt like I was HOME. It was amazing to be with other people who love to read as much as I do.
But, Ms. Morton was the icing on the cake. She was so engaging, funny, open and earnest. And when she talked about her love for reading and how it lead to her becoming a writer, I could hear so many similar strains of myself in her story. She was inspiring...the whole evening was. I felt almost like I was having a communion with the other people in the room. I struck up a conversation about a man who turned out to be an expert on the history of European monarchies. And the woman I mentioned at the beginning of my post gave me some of the best "life" advice I've ever received. I left there feeling so energized and elated and focused.
I don't know anything that unites people the way stories do. Whether they are told in books, in movies or on television - there is something powerful about meeting people who find the same joy in the stories you love. And then to meet the person who brought that story to life? AMAZING!
Look at the goodies, I got!
People who don't read may not get it, but books can transport, transform and also be just what the doctor ordered!
