By Nimue Brown

What are we looking for when we pick up a book? Escapism? Excitement? Something to stir our emotions, or expand our empathy? Are we looking for reassuring reflections of ourselves and our world views? Or do we read to be challenged, or inspired, or for the catharsis of encountering other people’s horror and misery?

There are no right or wrong answers here. We each come to the idea of reading with a set of things we need from a book, and perhaps even from one day to the next that set shifts. There’s only so long I can spend being a studious reader of non-fiction before I need a really good story. Many of us read in an array of genres precisely because we need different kinds of books at different times.

Sometimes books can inspire us in ways that change our sense of self, our sense of what’s possible, and everything else in our lives is totally shaken up by it. Perhaps it’s that first moment when, in reading a story, you realise you are not totally alone in your experiences and feelings. Perhaps it’s a vision of the world that you fall in love with and want to make real. How many polyamorous folk found their sense of identity via Stranger in a Strange Land? How many people find the courage to face their own struggles because they’re walked into Mordor with Frodo Baggins? How many people believe in the power of friendship after kicking round Hogwarts with Harry Potter?

Books don’t have to make dramatic changes to our lives to be important. Sometimes the comfort of being able to step out of your own life for a little while is immeasurable. Held within a book, we can recover from illnesses, and from life experiences. We can remember how to laugh, we can weep necessary tears. In lonely times, books can be very good friends.

I won’t travel to outer space in real life. I won’t fight against Macbeth’s armies, although I went there with Mercedes Rochelle. I’ve walked the moon’s path with Elen Sentier, and I’ve been all over America with Kim Cayer, doing crazy things. I read to live more lives than this one.

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