Remember
the stillness and quiet at the end of a stirring piece of music? For
a moment everyone is caught – absorbing the music, the meaning, the
associations or memories that the music evoked. Then comes the
thunderous applause, the curtain calls and reality.
Reading is
like that. Sometimes I find I have to wait a day before starting the
next book. My mind wanders back and the current book (no matter how
good it is) just has to wait.
It seems
I’m not alone. Brain scans are
revealing what happens in our heads when we read a detailed
description, an evocative metaphor or an emotional exchange between
characters. Stories, this research is showing, stimulate the brain
and even change how we act in life. Furthermore that
those who frequently read fiction
seem to be better able to understand other people, empathize with
them and see the world from their perspective..jpg)
The brain,
it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about
an experience and encountering it in real life.
Books that
have stimulated my brain this year include:
David
Miller reading aloud his book Big
and Me
Annabel
Pitcher My Sister Lives on the
Mantlepiece
S D
Crockett After the Snow
Daniel
Handler & Moira Kalman’s Why
We Broke Up
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