For many Americans, the uncertainty and boredom of the pandemic was avoidable within the pages of a book. In 2021, 75% of Americans said they had read or started at least one book, with the average person reading 14 books.

The percentage of Americans who said they had read in the previous year has been consistent since 2011, according to annual surveys from Pew Research. Format preferences have changed, however, and library closures during the pandemic have caused some readers to opt for e-books over print. Last year, 30% of Americans read an e-book, an increase of 5% from the previous year, according to the Pew study.

Regardless of the format, reading remains a major form of entertainment, education, and sometimes escape from real life. However, scientists have also found that reading benefits the brain in terms of neurological function and emotional well-being.

The more you know

Studies have shown that people who read regularly show a high level of declarative knowledge. Declarative knowledge is acquired information related to everyday life, such as knowing that a catalytic converter controls a car’s exhaust emissions or that a vizsla is a type of dog. It is part of a body of knowledge called crystallized knowledge, which also includes our life history and our vocabulary.

Crystallized knowledge includes a wide range of cultural literacy as well as our basic understandings of science, philosophy, and psychology. It is built throughout life, and a historical study has revealed that readers have greater crystallized knowledge. In the study, the researchers recruited two groups of participants – older adults (average age 79.9) and college students (average age 19.1). Both groups completed questionnaires about how they spend their free time and their reading habits. They also completed checklists in which they noted books, magazines, and authors they knew. They then underwent a series of tests to measure their cultural literacy, vocabulary, working memory and reasoning skills.

For both groups, reading habits were a “significant predictor” of the person’s vocabulary strength and declarative knowledge. Older participants, however, preferred reading as a leisure activity and outperformed college students on all assessments related to declarative knowledge. The authors concluded that crystallized knowledge was maintained into adulthood and reflected the construction of a lifetime of information.

Emotional benefits

In addition to helping people gain knowledge about the world around them, books can be therapeutic. Bibliotherapy is the process by which a book is prescribed to a person facing a real-world problem.

Researchers hypothesize that the practice of reading as therapy has been around for centuries, but became mainstream in the United States in the mid-twentieth century. A researcher established that bibliotherapy had six clear functions: to show the reader that others have encountered the same problem and that they are not the first to do so; show the reader new solutions; help the reader understand the motivations people feel when faced with a similar problem; provide facts; and to encourage a realistic approach to problem solving.

Bibliotherapy is also now considered a healthy way for a reader to release emotions and develop empathy for the character who faces a similar dilemma. Scientists are now investigating how bibliotherapy can be used to increase mental well-being.

A study revealed that inmates with depression said they like being able to put their personal thoughts aside when dealing with a book, a script for a play or a collection of poetry. In another study with shared reading groups, inmates reported increased emotional benefits from participating in a weekly reading group. In the study, prisoners met with a shared reading group on a weekly basis to discuss a designated book. They reported feeling a stronger sense of socialization and encouragement by engaging with the book and other group members.

Lingering Literary Benefits

Reading a story can have a powerful emotional effect that scientists have discovered in our brains.

Emory University researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of study participants over a 19-day period as they progressed through an assigned novel. At the start of the study, the researchers took images of the participants’ brains when they weren’t reading a novel. Then they asked participants to read each night and complete the novel in nine days. The book, Pompeii, took readers to AD 79 as Mount Vesuvius threatened to burst and a man rushed to save the woman he loved.

After each night of reading, participants returned the next morning for an fMRI. They then returned five more days after the book was completed. The morning after the reading, the researchers discovered the region of the brain associated with language, the left temporal cortex, showed increased connectivityand the activity persisted for five days after the participant completed the book.

Similarly, the region responsible for the primary motor sensor, the central furrow, also showed increased activity that lingered. Because the central sulcus is responsible for bodily sensations, the researchers concluded that the study supported anecdotal findings that a book can indeed make a reader feel like they are in it.