I relish the thought of getting caught up in a great book. Discovering a page-turner, and entering into a far away literary world with characters I can almost touch and feel is one of my favorite things. I was recently swept up in the world inside All The Light We Cannot See, and I’m currently roaming the Scottish countryside in the second book of the Outlander series.
I was eager to click on this link last week about the psychology of the perfect beach read while I was poking around on Luella & June (one of my favorite blogs). Like everyone else, I love a good beach read. My friends and I have passed around addicting titles by Gillian Flynn, Emily Griffin, Elin Hilderbrand & more. So I was fascinated with learning about why these beach reads are so great.
In the article, writer Jenni Avins explains, thanks to psychotherapist Robin Rosenberg, that vacation heightens our capacity to immerse ourselves in a good read. While on vacation, we’re less stressed and more open to becoming swept away with a story.
And a great story—a literary, character-driven story—can be just as beneficial for us in life after vacation. In the article, Keith Oatley, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, a novelist and the author of a forthcoming paper on the psychology of fiction, to be published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences this month, explains that these stories can make us more caring, emphatic people after reading them on vacation. “It enables us to get more involved with understanding other people,” says Oatley.
Tell me, have you found any good beach reads this summer? What books are sweeping you away right now? Have any literary characters in particular stuck with you? I’d LOVE to hear in the comments below. Cheers, Kat
P.S. Looking for your next perfect beach read? Check out GoodRead’s list for a few great ideas. xo
