After I receive my healing potion this morning my sword arm will probably be quite sore so I thought I would go ahead and take care of today’s missive before I really don’t feel like doing anything.

Today let’s continue the chat about reading, why do we like to read? Is it because we can lose ourselves in a world only in our minds or because we grow to love the characters we read about?

I have a tendency towards having an overactive imagination which makes reading even more fun.

According to the New Yorker “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.”

I feel the above to be very true, even though my nights of reading till 3 am are over I find it very helpful to read for a little while before I go to bed, it helps me to relax and shed off any anxiety I have been feeling.

We now live in a technology-driven world and even though some may say this is a bad thing I feel like books are now much more accessible and with a smartphone in your hand or a backlit kindle all of a sudden you can lay in bed in the dark and truly immerse yourself in the worlds created by your own imagination.

If you want to read more about how reading can make you happier please check out the article by Ceridwen Dovey