“Can reading make you happier?”

A Lust for Life’s New Summer Series Book Club

Can reading make you happier, more fulfilled, and help you in times of mental and spiritual crisis? This question forms the centre of Bibliotherapy, a form of therapy from wayyy wayyy back where books are given as a ‘prescription’ to people who are having mental health problems. For those of us that like to read or listen to audiobooks, this might sound like the dream form of therapy… in fact we may have been using Bibliotherapy without even knowing it.

Most people I know who have had mental health problems have a book they read or listened to that played a big part in getting them through a really rough time. For some, it’s a literary novel. For others, its binging on trashy beach books. Some read graphic novels and escape to other worlds through science fiction. Some find solace in the self-help section. Others turn to religious and spiritual texts when they find themselves in need of reflection, introspection, and counsel.

Here at A Lust for Life, we’ve been hearing two things a lot recently.

First of all, lots of people say they don’t have time to read, or they find it very hard to find the motivation to sit down with a book. The lure of the internet has destroyed our attention spans and capacity for deep thinking and slow activities like reading, and a lot of folks want to undo this pattern in their lives.

Second, we’ve been hearing lots of great book recommendations from our writers and readers recently who say a particular book really helped them find clarity, calm, or insight.

… and it gave us an idea.

We’re going to run a monthly digital book club over the summer this year.

Our readers will recommend books to us, and we’ll put a poll on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to choose which book we’ll select that month. We’ll then have an online book club chat on the last Wednesday of the month, at 8pm-9pm when people are home from work, gym, kids are in bed, and we all have a bit of time and headspace to chat.

First off we have to pick a book for the first session! We’re going to crowd source book recommendations for the next session, but the first one are some of the A Lust for Life team’s favourites.

We’ll use the hashtag #ALFLBookClub, and chat on Facebook and on Instagram. If people like it, we’ll think about doing lots more with this – in-person meetups, Facebook live sessions, and other fun things along the way.

Let us know if you are up for participating in our first book club by Tweeting us using the hashtag #ALFLBookClub. And please send us your book recommendations! Lots of them! By using the hashtag or by emailing editor@alustforlife.com.

Our first session will be in June on Twitter and Facebook. We’ll pick the first book on Monday 21st May and announce it on our social channels, so get voting.

Hope to see you there! Let the reading (and talking) begin :)