{"id":8907,"date":"2026-05-14T15:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/?page_id=8907"},"modified":"2026-05-14T15:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:56:25","slug":"books","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/en\/books\/","title":{"rendered":"Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Oh Right, That\u2019s Why<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A brief reminder of what books do to us, and why we keep let\u00adting them<\/em><\/p>

 <\/div>
There is a spe\u00adcif\u00adic kind of Sun\u00adday after\u00adnoon \u2014 grey out\u00adside, tea going cold, the rest of the week\u00adend dis\u00adsolv\u00ading into noth\u00ading in par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar \u2014 that becomes, with a book in hand, some\u00adthing close to per\u00adfect. Not despite the grey\u00adness. Because of it. A book does\u00adn\u2019t require good con\u00addi\u00adtions. It is<\/em> the good con\u00addi\u00adtions. This is already some\u00adthing worth not\u00ading, before we get into any\u00adthing more com\u00adpli\u00adcat\u00aded.<\/div>

Read\u00ading is one of the old\u00adest things we do for plea\u00adsure, and also one of the most qui\u00adet\u00adly rad\u00adi\u00adcal. You take a phys\u00adi\u00adcal object \u2014 or, increas\u00ading\u00adly, a glow\u00ading rec\u00adtan\u00adgle \u2014 stare at marks on a sur\u00adface, and are trans\u00adport\u00aded. Not metaphor\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly trans\u00adport\u00aded. Actu\u00adal\u00adly some\u00adwhere else, in a way that neu\u00adro\u00adscience has been earnest\u00adly try\u00ading to quan\u00adti\u00adfy for decades while read\u00aders have been sim\u00adply get\u00adting on with it. Brain scans of peo\u00adple read\u00ading fic\u00adtion show activ\u00adi\u00adty in the sen\u00adso\u00adry and motor cor\u00adtex \u2014 the parts that process real expe\u00adri\u00adence. Your brain, appar\u00adent\u00adly, does not entire\u00adly dis\u00adtin\u00adguish between read\u00ading about run\u00adning through a for\u00adest and actu\u00adal\u00adly run\u00adning through a for\u00adest. It is, in the best pos\u00adsi\u00adble sense, being fooled.<\/p>

The privacy of it<\/h3>

One of read\u00ading\u2019s less cel\u00ade\u00adbrat\u00aded virtues is that it is entire\u00adly, irre\u00adducibly your own. A film is direct\u00aded. A pod\u00adcast has a host. Even a con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion has anoth\u00ader per\u00adson in it, with their own agen\u00adda and their need to be lis\u00adtened to in return. A book has none of that. It is just you and the text, and what hap\u00adpens between you hap\u00adpens nowhere else. Two peo\u00adple can read the same nov\u00adel and come away hav\u00ading read, in some mean\u00ading\u00adful sense, dif\u00adfer\u00adent books \u2014 coloured by dif\u00adfer\u00adent mem\u00ado\u00adries, dif\u00adfer\u00adent loss\u00ades, dif\u00adfer\u00adent ideas about what peo\u00adple are like. There is no cor\u00adrect read\u00ading. There is only yours.<\/p>

This pri\u00adva\u00adcy extends to some\u00adthing more per\u00adson\u00adal still. Read\u00ading is one of the few activ\u00adi\u00adties in which it is entire\u00adly accept\u00adable \u2014 expect\u00aded, even \u2014 to stop and think. To reread a sen\u00adtence because it was too good to pass through only once. To put the book down and stare at the ceil\u00ading for a while. No one is wait\u00ading. No noti\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion is pend\u00ading. The book will be there when you come back, unchanged, patient, with\u00adout the faint reproach of an unread mes\u00adsage.<\/p>

Other people\u2019s heads<\/h3>

There is a rea\u00adson\u00adable case that read\u00ading fic\u00adtion is the most effec\u00adtive empa\u00adthy train\u00ading avail\u00adable, and that this is not a minor thing. A nov\u00adel lets you inhab\u00adit, for hours at a stretch, a con\u00adscious\u00adness that is not yours. Not observe it from out\u00adside \u2014 inhab\u00adit<\/em> it. You think its thoughts. You feel its embar\u00adrass\u00adments. You want what it wants, even if what it wants is some\u00adthing you would find baf\u00adfling or objec\u00adtion\u00adable in ordi\u00adnary life. This is a strange gift. We spend most of our lives firm\u00adly inside our own heads, with only inter\u00admit\u00adtent and par\u00adtial access to any\u00adone else\u2019s. Lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture is one of the few avail\u00adable excep\u00adtions.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\u201cA read\u00ader lives a thou\u00adsand lives before he dies. The man who nev\u00ader reads lives only one.\u201d\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGeorge R.R. Mar\u00adtin, who has pre\u00adsum\u00adably read quite a few him\u00adself.<\/cite>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Research broad\u00adly sup\u00adports what read\u00aders have always sus\u00adpect\u00aded: that peo\u00adple who read fic\u00adtion reg\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly tend to score high\u00ader on mea\u00adsures of empa\u00adthy and social under\u00adstand\u00ading. Whether the read\u00ading caus\u00ades this or whether empa\u00adthet\u00adic peo\u00adple are sim\u00adply more drawn to fic\u00adtion is the kind of ques\u00adtion aca\u00add\u00ade\u00admics enjoy, but the cor\u00adre\u00adla\u00adtion is there regard\u00adless. Some\u00adthing is hap\u00adpen\u00ading in the exchange between read\u00ader and book that has con\u00adse\u00adquences beyond the book itself.<\/p>

The slow things<\/h3>

Read\u00ading is also, at this par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar moment in his\u00adto\u00adry, a qui\u00adet\u00adly coun\u00adter\u00adcul\u00adtur\u00adal act. Not dra\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly coun\u00adter\u00adcul\u00adtur\u00adal \u2014 you are not going to get arrest\u00aded for it, and no one will be par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly impressed at a din\u00adner par\u00adty \u2014 but coun\u00adter\u00adcul\u00adtur\u00adal in the sense that it runs against the grain of almost every\u00adthing else com\u00adpet\u00ading for your atten\u00adtion. It is slow. It is lin\u00adear. It requires sus\u00adtained focus on a sin\u00adgle thing. It does not update. It does not send you a noti\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion when some\u00adthing hap\u00adpens. It just sits there, ask\u00ading you to con\u00adtin\u00adue.<\/p>

This is hard\u00ader than it used to be, and most read\u00aders will admit it. The atten\u00adtion that a nov\u00adel requires \u2014 deep, unhur\u00adried, will\u00ading to fol\u00adlow a thought for sev\u00ader\u00adal pages \u2014 is exact\u00adly the kind of atten\u00adtion that con\u00adstant con\u00adnec\u00adtiv\u00adi\u00adty tends to erode. Many peo\u00adple report find\u00ading it dif\u00adfi\u00adcult to read for long stretch\u00ades in the way they once could, and find, when they man\u00adage it, that it feels like a recov\u00adery of some\u00adthing. Not quite a lux\u00adu\u00adry. More like remem\u00adber\u00ading what a full breath feels like.<\/p>

What stays<\/h3>

Books accu\u00admu\u00adlate in ways that oth\u00ader media do not, or not quite in the same way. A film you loved in 1995 is hard\u00ader to car\u00adry with you than a nov\u00adel you loved in 1995. The nov\u00adel left some\u00adthing inside you \u2014 a voice, a set of images, a char\u00adac\u00adter who felt more real than some actu\u00adal peo\u00adple. You may have for\u00adgot\u00adten the plot entire\u00adly and retain only a mood, a sen\u00adtence, a scene involv\u00ading rain and a spe\u00adcif\u00adic kind of sad\u00adness. This is not a fail\u00adure of mem\u00ado\u00adry. It is how books work. They do not ask to be remem\u00adbered intact. They ask to be absorbed.<\/p>

There is also the phys\u00adi\u00adcal object to con\u00adsid\u00ader, for those who still use one. A shelf of read books is a pecu\u00adliar kind of auto\u00adbi\u00adog\u00adra\u00adphy \u2014 not the life you lived, but the lives you bor\u00adrowed. The spines alone can send you some\u00adwhere. That par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar green paper\u00adback. The one with the bro\u00adken spine because you read it too fast and held it too tight. The one some\u00adone gave you with a note inside that you have nev\u00ader thrown away.<\/p>

The simple answer<\/h3>

For all the neu\u00adro\u00adscience and the empa\u00adthy research and the cul\u00adtur\u00adal crit\u00adi\u00adcism, the rea\u00adson most peo\u00adple read comes down to some\u00adthing more straight\u00adfor\u00adward: it is one of the few things that reli\u00adably makes them feel less alone. Not in a des\u00adper\u00adate sense. In the sense of recog\u00adni\u00adtion \u2014 the sen\u00adtence that says some\u00adthing you had felt but not said, about grief or embar\u00adrass\u00adment or the spe\u00adcif\u00adic way after\u00adnoon light falls in Octo\u00adber, and you think: some\u00adone else noticed that.<\/em> Some\u00adone sat down, decades or cen\u00adturies ago, and noticed the same thing you noticed, and had the patience and the skill to write it down, and here you are, find\u00ading it.<\/p>

That is a small mir\u00ada\u00adcle. It hap\u00adpens in books con\u00adstant\u00adly, and almost nowhere else with quite the same reli\u00ada\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty.<\/p>

So no, we haven\u2019t for\u00adgot\u00adten why we love it. We just occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly need the reminder \u2014 which is, come to think of it, also what books are for.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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One more thing<\/h3>

All of which brings us, gen\u00adtly but firm\u00adly, to your local book\u00adshop. Not the algo\u00adrithm. Not the overnight deliv\u00adery. The actu\u00adal shop, on the actu\u00adal street, with the slight\u00adly idio\u00adsyn\u00adcrat\u00adic sec\u00adtion labelling and the per\u00adson behind the counter who has read more than you and is will\u00ading to prove it. The one that smells right. The one where you go in for one book and come out with three, which was always the plan whether you admit\u00adted it or not.<\/p>

Inde\u00adpen\u00addent book\u00adshops do some\u00adthing that no online retail\u00ader has man\u00adaged to repli\u00adcate: they make rec\u00adom\u00admen\u00adda\u00adtions that are for you specif\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly<\/em>, based on a con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion, a hunch, a know\u00ading look at what you just put on the counter. They host the read\u00adings and the book clubs and the evenings that go on longer than intend\u00aded. They are, in a qui\u00adet way, com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty infra\u00adstruc\u00adture \u2014 the kind that only becomes vis\u00adi\u00adble when it\u2019s gone, by which point it is too late to do any\u00adthing about it.<\/p>

So buy the book local\u00adly. It costs rough\u00adly the same, it feels con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adably bet\u00adter, and the book\u00adshop \u2014 your book\u00adshop \u2014 will still be there next time you need it. Which, if the above is any indi\u00adca\u00adtion, will be soon\u00ader than you think.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh Right, That\u2019s Why A brief reminder of what books do to us, and why we keep let\u00adting them  There is a spe\u00adcif\u00adic kind of Sun\u00adday after\u00adnoon \u2014 grey out\u00adside, tea going cold, the rest of the week\u00adend dis\u00adsolv\u00ading into noth\u00ading in par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar \u2014 that becomes, with a book in 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