Reading has the power to transform our mental health, so here's how to get back into books (from someone who made it their mission to become a bookworm)
It’s safe to say the past year has taken a heavy toll on our mental health. Even as we ease out of lockdown, we’re still not feeling quite ‘right’ (that’s called languishing, BTW), but there is one easy thing that could help: reading.
Reading is a transformative mental health tool. One study found that reading for just six minutes a day can help reduce your stress levels by lowering your heart rate, easing muscle tension and altering your state of mind. The study also found that reading is more calming than going for a walk, listening to music or drinking a cup of tea.
More recently, a 2020 Oxford University study concluded that “challenging language” sent “rocket boosters” to our brain that could positively impact our mental health. Professor Philip Davis, author of Reading for Life, told The Times that literature “frees emotions and imagination” and can help to make someone feel “more alive”.
Reading is so beneficial for your mental health that the NHS even introduced a reading scheme back in 2008 that saw certain books prescribed to people facing mental health issues.
Yet, as much as we try (and make it one of our new year’s resolutions each year) it’s easy to fall off the reading wagon, especially in the digital age we live in. From being bombarded by content from streaming services, to constant group chats and the endless social media scrolls we often find ourselves in, it’s easy to pass up reading for the allure and ease of our digital devices.
Which is why making reading a priority is the key to picking it back up again. Last year I made it a goal to read 20 books and by the end of the year I’d read 23. This year I wanted to read 25, instead I’m averaging a book a week and have just finished number 18 (Have You Seen Me? by Kate White - a suspense novel so good I read it in just two sittings). As well as reaping the mental health benefits, I’ve found that reading is the perfect alternative for when you feel you’ve exhausted your streaming service options (anyone else spend half an hour just trying to find something to watch? It’s draining). With this in mind, here are some tips for how to get back into reading.
Download the Kindle app on your phone
As much as I love holding and reading a physical book (it’s the perfect way to reduce screen time), living in a small London flat simply means I do not have enough space for all the books I want to read. With libraries still shuttered, downloading the Kindle app on your phone is a great way to read more books (especially as lots of great books are available for just 99p). Having these books on my phone means, instead of instinctively going for one of the social media apps, I’ve been more likely to tap on the Kindle app and start reading.
Make reading a priority
If you want to become a more avid reader, you are going to have to make reading a priority. This means instead of spending 45 minutes per day mindlessly scrolling on TikTok (something we are very guilty of), use this time to read instead. Actively choosing to read is the best way to make it become a habit. It can help to set some realistic goals too. Start out with trying to read a book a month and gently increase it from there (or keep it as is, up to you!).
Find a reading time that suits you
While reading before bed is a proven stress-reducer (and can help you to sleep better), it’s not a time that suits everyone. You need to fit reading around your schedule, whether that means fitting in a cheeky 20 minutes into your lunch break, setting your alarm 10 minutes earlier to start the day with a relaxing read or even taking your book with you to the gym to read while you’re on the cross trainer - make it work for you.
Test out different genres
If you’re a rom-com fanatic (guilty as charged), you love a good thriller or you long to get lost in a fantasy world, sometimes it’s great to diversify your reading habits. Booktok (TikTok’s bibliophile community) is a great place to get recommendations for genres you wouldn’t normally delve into. I'm quietly obsessed with @bettysbooklist who gives recommendations for books in such a fun way. It’s also worth noting that if you aren’t enjoying a book, you don’t have to finish it! Why waste time on a book you’re not enjoying when there are so many other brilliant options out there?
Put on an audiobook during your commute or daily walk
A recent study found that audiobooks can increase the enjoyment of reading, so it could be a great gateway option for those looking to increase their reading levels. Audiobooks are the ultimate reading tool for the time poor. Simply pop it on when you’re out for a walk, commuting to work, running errands, doing chores or when you’re at home or cooking dinner.
Join a book club
Book clubs are one of the best ways to get into reading because you are more or less told what book to read each month and, when it comes to discussing it, you generally do so over wine and cheese - what’s better than that? If none of your friends are book fans, and there’s no local club you can join, there are plenty of welcoming Instagram book clubs that we love. Why not try The Hyphen—Book Club (@thehyphenbookclub) run by writer and podcaster Emma Gannon? Or Between Two Books (@betweentwobooks) run by Florence Welch (yes, as in Florence + the Machine Florence)? If you're a non-fiction fan, you should look to Rebel Book Club (@rebelbookclub) for insightful reads.
However you go about it, getting back into reading can do wonders for your mental health - and you'll start feeling the benefits straight away. Scroll down to see our favourite new books for 2021.
Best new thriller
Leave The World Behind, £6.43, Amazon
An impossibly compelling literary thriller about the world we live in now, Rumaan Alam's novel is keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped in moments of crisis - and how the most terrifying situations are never far from reality. It's also soon to be a major global Netflix adaptation starring Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts, so you'll want to read it before then!
Best new memoir
Somebody's Daughter, £11.50, Amazon
Throughout her adolescence, Ashley Ford doesn't know how to deal with the worries that keep her up at night. If only she could turn to her father for his advice and support. But he's in prison, and she doesn't know what he did to end up there. After being raped by her ex-boyfriend, Ashley desperately searches for her sense of self. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father's incarceration... and Ashley's world is turned upside down.
Best new biography
It's About Bloody Time Period, £8.19, Amazon
Emma Barnett, host of Woman’s Hour and Newsnight, has suffered from endometriosis almost all of her life, but it took 21 years for her to be diagnosed. A huge advocate for women’s health parity, she has given credence to and brought topics such as menstruation and IVF to the forefront of our political and social agendas. The frank and funny Barnett shares her story, as well as those of others, to ask why we've clammed up about menstruation. It's the type of book that will make you laugh, weep, and squirm all at once.
Best new satire novel
The Other Black Girl, £10.99, Amazon
The Other Black Girl is a darkly comic satire describing the tension between two young Black women who meet in the incredibly white arena of book publishing. It makes intelligent and timely commentary on the office dynamics that can exist in a wide range of industries, while also being very funny and a genuine page-turner.
Best new high tension thriller
Releasing on March 9, Her Dark Lies invites you to a wedding none will forget--and some won't survive. This breathtaking novel is filled with twists and turns - and an ending you won't see coming.
Best new political novel
The Smash-Up explores the story of Ethan Frome's otherwise quiet life turning upside down as his wife, Zo - enraged by the national political scene - transforms their home into a local headquarters for the Resistance. It's an intimate, moving portrait of a family in distress against the backdrop of a world-rocking cultural smash-up.
Best uplifting new book
The Midnight Library, £5, Amazon
Already a Sunday Times Bestseller, this modern-day fable contains multiple stories as Nora is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. However it lands up raising the ultimate question: with infinite choices, what is the best way to live?
Best new book on mental health
You Are Not Your Masks, £9.95, Amazon
Mental health is one of the biggest issues society faces today, especially during lockdown. Saied helps us to understand and prevent some major mental and emotional disorders by provoking creative thinking to help us find solutions for ourselves. This is the ultimate mental health tool book.
Best literary thriller fiction new book
Who is Maud Dixon?, £14.99, Amazon
This literary thriller follows Florence Darrow as she jumps at the chance to be assistant to the celebrated Maud Dixon, the anonymous bestselling novelist. Whilst on research trip to Morocco, Florence wakes up in a hospital, having narrowly survived a car crash but Maud is nowhere to be seen..
Best female centered new book
A propulsive narrative of one woman's persistence and journey to self-discovery, In The Quick follows June, a brilliant but difficult girl with a gift for mechanical invention who leaves home to begin grueling astronaut training at the National Space Program. Following her as she becomes an engineer on a space station, it's an exploration of the strengths and limits of human ability in the face of hardship.
Best historical fiction new book
The Lost Apothecary, £13.19, Amazon
Moving between eighteenth-century London and current day London, The Lost Apothecary tells the story of a secret apothecary shop that sells well-disguised poisons for women to use against the oppressive men in their lives, until a fatal mistake sparks a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.
Best artificial intelligence new book
Klara and the Sun, £14.19, Amazon
Klara and the Sun looks at our rapidly-changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator - Klara, an Artificial Friend - and explores a fundamental question of humankind: what does it mean to love?
Best new novel you won't want to put down
How Beautiful We Were, £11.49, Amazon
Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, How Beautiful We Were tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Exploring what happens when the reckless drive for profit comes up against one community's determination to hold onto its ancestral land, it makes for unputdownable reading.
Best new book for 20-somethings
The book's protagonist, Edie, will be relatable to most 20-somethings: dead-end job, romantic life involving all the wrong men, and untapped aspirations. Now she's involved herself with a married white man who is in an open-ish marriage. You won't be able to put it down.
Best new book about slavery
The debut novel takes you to a plantation filled with male slaves - two of which seem to have a close bond. That bond is threatened when a fellow slave decides to expose them.
Best new light hearted book
Writers & Lovers, £7.37, Amazon
If you're in need of some light escapism and enjoy a love story, this'll do you nicely. Casey suddenly meets two very different men: Silas and Oscar. (On names alone, our inner romantics make us team Silas). Both have the potential to offer her different futures - one is kind and gentler, the other dark and brooding. The choice should be simple, but love rarely is. The paperback arrives February 8.
Best new must-read book
All The Young Men, £7.37, Amazon
If It's A Sin has been stuck in your head, pick this book up. This is the story of a real woman who helped men during the AIDS pandemic. It's an honest and raw read that will leave you disgusted by the way gay men were treated, with the doors to patient's rooms being painted red with nurses scared to enter and help the ill.
Best new debut novel
A Burning is set in modern day India and follows three main characters, all with different backgrounds and aspirations. One thing they share is their desire for a better future. It deals with class, terrorism and the idea of fate.
Best new crime novel
Crime lovers, we bet you'll be glued to this. A boy is the only survivor after his father shoots his family and then himself. Now he's older and he wants answers from the people closest that should have known better.
Best new book based on real-life
The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames, £13.18, Amazon
This is a true story about a daughter, Justine Cowan, who decides to look more into her mother's past after she dies - it's something she was always cagey and secretive about.
Best new book to fight racism
How To Argue With A Racist, £7.19, Amazon
We should all continually be doing the work to dismantle racism, and educating yourself on the subject is a good place to start.
Best new book about modern life
It's hot off the press and Zadie Smith has already claimed to have loved it, so it's instantly bumped up our reading list. It looks at the idea of authenticity in the internet age and how people really do have the means to present as anyone they want. The protagonist makes a scary realisation about this when she snoops through her boyfriend's phone.
Best new poetry book
Anyone else counting down until the release of Rupi Kaur’s third collection of poetry? Thought so. Raw and honest, the beloved Instapoet deep dives into the self, exploring themes of acceptance, change and love.
Best new romance novel
If you’re looking for a romance novel, turn to Sophie Kinsella’s Love Your Life, an exploration of whether love is enough to change your life completely. This is escapism at its best.
Best new memoir
Insightful and inspirational, David Bailey’s Look Again is a glorious memoir about his extraordinary career as one of the world’s most famous photographers.
Best new interiors book
Make Life Beautiful, £15.19, Amazon
Looking for interiors inspo? Don’t miss the autobiography from Syd and Shea McGee, the stars of the new Netflix series Dream Home Makeover. This is an essential book for those looking to renovate their home.
Best new book about failure
Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong, £7.79, Amazon
Following on from the enormous success of her debut novel How To Fail, Elizabeth Day returns with an essential handbook on how to cope when things don’t go to plan. Told through seven principles, Elizabeth shares all the lessons she’s learnt from failure.
