The Feeling Of Getting Lost In A Book

If you are someone who spends most of your waking moments reading books, here is an affirmation that you are not wasting your time. No, don’t believe those who point fingers at you. They are definitely wrong! At least that is what the researchers say. Being so immersed in a book, traversing page after page that you never realized it has become dark that you have been squinting your eyes to read through the pages is what is the so-called “Getting lost in a book” and being as one with the characters, going through every single emotion that they carry through their journey. It is quite a rarity.

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.

George R.R. Martin​

Some books have the magical ability to suck you into the world like a vacuum pump in between their words leading to lines and lines leading to pages and pages of a rollercoaster ride that you could never find an exit to. Neither can you take a shortcut; you have to go through everything and see the end of it no matter what. This means once you pick up the book you can never think of putting it down until and unless the world stands still. Most book nerds might agree with this.

But how do you make it understandable for normal people who have never experienced a fictional world? It could be quite tough to verbalize the feeling. Here is what researchers have found out regarding how exactly this hypothesis takes place. Surprisingly, it is a bit simple. Once a person reads a para filled with strong emotional feelings, you start to empathize with the characters, you either see a part of you in them or get attached to them slowly by thinking about everything from their shoes. This gives rise to hell a lot of emotions within you that could be existential. This is almost similar to crying after watching your favorite character die in a film.

For all those who want to get the same feeling of “Getting lost in a book”, here are a few selling points on why you should try this at least once in your lifetime.

An escape of a sort

Getting into the fictional world is the best way to escape your reality. Yes, movies could also be an escape but this is something more. When you read a beautiful book, words stop being just words, and become something more, something new, something extraordinary. Because you get to dwell into the psyche of the characters which is little to impossible in the movies. And also when you get to build the world from your own imagination out of thin air, you tend to become one in the world. And eventually, leave everyone and everything you know behind to dissipate.

You only know that you have been lost when you are forcefully pulled out of your trance. All the tears, fear, anger, and chills are so true that they are a beautiful reminder of such a powerful writing.

Finding your solace

When you snap out of the book to look back into reality it is similar to getting stuck by a truck out of nowhere. For a split second, you lose yourself to only reminisce in the disoriented belief of the surreal world that existed a few seconds ago. Sometimes it soothes our soul like no other, making us want nothing more than to unabashedly bask in the glow of eternal possibility. You could also feel a sense of belonging over a period of time, leaving you with nothing other than disappointment, after you hit back into reality.

Overall, this feeling is like an addiction, once you taste it, you keep wanting more. If the book you pick is really good, then the words will make you bend to their rhythm, making you vulnerable, and surprising you by pulling out the deepest and darkest sides of your soul which you never knew existed.

It’s all about experimenting. Start today and find the missing piece of you, that you never noticed.

HAPPY READING!

Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.

Alberto Manguel

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