http://bookriot.com/2013/03/19/literary-cures-for-whatever-ails-you/
Reading to cure my emotional problems isn't a new idea for me, though I do it differently than how the above article suggest. Becky Pole suggests ready books opposite of what you're feeling in order to make you feel better, or learn to deal with your problems. It makes sense, it' simply not how I operate. When I read, I don't pick a genre based on my mood- though perhaps a reading level based on my current attention span. When I read, I do it to escape. If I'm sad, I'm just as likely to read a sad book as I am a happy book- if not more likely, seeing as I have actually letting myself be sad and need to get it out of my system. Its cathartic to read a sad book when you're sad, you see how much worse off other people could have it, can still escape from my our own sadness, and just let the tears (if you're a crier) out. If I'm happy, I don't want to be brought down with a sad book. So no opposites there either. Plus, learning to deal with your problems through characters seems like a bad idea. No one writes about perfect, happy lived people. They're boring. Most characters well developed ones or interesting ones worth reading about anyway- are messed up in some way, aren't normal. Normal isn't interesting, normal isn't written about! So you probably shouldn't take advice on life from a bunch of fictional "interesting" people.Even if the advice is "don't do what I did", you don't know how non-fictional people are going to react in parallels to the fictional ones. In regards to the self help books the article described....yeah...it takes a certain mentality to get through and connect to a self help book. I always just imagine overly chipper old guys bouncing and yelling at me when I see self-help books, so I just can't get through them. The audio books it prescribed for going to bed though, I can relate to. The most dull and silky voiced people record audio books and it puts me to sleep every time I hear one in my grandmother's car. I might invest in those to try to get back on a normal sleep cycle sometime soon.
Reading to cure my emotional problems isn't a new idea for me, though I do it differently than how the above article suggest. Becky Pole suggests ready books opposite of what you're feeling in order to make you feel better, or learn to deal with your problems. It makes sense, it' simply not how I operate. When I read, I don't pick a genre based on my mood- though perhaps a reading level based on my current attention span. When I read, I do it to escape. If I'm sad, I'm just as likely to read a sad book as I am a happy book- if not more likely, seeing as I have actually letting myself be sad and need to get it out of my system. Its cathartic to read a sad book when you're sad, you see how much worse off other people could have it, can still escape from my our own sadness, and just let the tears (if you're a crier) out. If I'm happy, I don't want to be brought down with a sad book. So no opposites there either. Plus, learning to deal with your problems through characters seems like a bad idea. No one writes about perfect, happy lived people. They're boring. Most characters well developed ones or interesting ones worth reading about anyway- are messed up in some way, aren't normal. Normal isn't interesting, normal isn't written about! So you probably shouldn't take advice on life from a bunch of fictional "interesting" people.Even if the advice is "don't do what I did", you don't know how non-fictional people are going to react in parallels to the fictional ones. In regards to the self help books the article described....yeah...it takes a certain mentality to get through and connect to a self help book. I always just imagine overly chipper old guys bouncing and yelling at me when I see self-help books, so I just can't get through them. The audio books it prescribed for going to bed though, I can relate to. The most dull and silky voiced people record audio books and it puts me to sleep every time I hear one in my grandmother's car. I might invest in those to try to get back on a normal sleep cycle sometime soon.
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