The latest best-selling novels might be in your stack of beach reads, but could reading them benefit your mental health? That's the idea behind bibliotherapy, the concept of reading as a therapeutic method to improve our well-being.

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[–] teft@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Cheu says literary bibliotherapy works because it allows readers to use stories to figure out how to repair their own dysfunctional narratives.

Brandon Sanderson’s writing helped me in this way.

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 1 points 19 hours ago

Care to elaborate?

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Meta question: this topic is about the act of reading, and not about any specific books. Is there a meta "reading" community where this topic would be better suited so as not to disrupt the signal-to-nouse ratio here? Or are we still small enough to keep everything lumped together.

Not meta, but related to the article: started reading a new (to me) sci fi series while on the beach last weekend (Canada Day long weekend). Primaterre. About a third into the first boon. Great escapism, mediocre writing. Will finish the first book and then read some reviews and see if the series is worth investing my time in. But, yeah, it feels good to zone out 😄

[–] misericordiae@literature.cafe 2 points 23 hours ago

I love that series, but I do remember repeatedly thinking that if they mentioned Joy's hair one more time in the first book, I'd throw it across the room. (Thankfully, that particular issue goes away in later volumes.) I expected very little, but was pleasantly surprised it zigged in certain places I was preparing to roll my eyes at a zag, and how well it kept moving, despite the high page count. Definitely focused on plot over character, though, and entertainment over depth.

If you end up enjoying book 1 enough, I'd say also go for book 2, although it loses the stuck-on-a-planet-with-cosmic-horrors thing. Books 3 and 4, which involve a new threat (hinted at in book 1), are worth reading if you're still invested, but I liked them a little less. (Joy is too special, and I found a couple of the through lines disappointing; still thoroughly readable, though!) Not sure about the spin-off books, but they're on my TBR list to check out eventually.

Glad you're enjoying it so far; hope it keeps being therapeutic!