How reading has helped us in lockdown | August 2021
I've always been an avid reader, you'd see me with a nose in a book at the most of times and throughout lockdown that didn't change. Many people suddenly found themselves with all the free time that they had wished for, for years. Reading distracts people, sparks imagination for a new world and made it a refreshing break from the constant negativity of lockdown. Nielsen's Book Research found that 41% more people were reading since the first lockdown was announced in March 2020. Crime and thriller genres were seen to be the most popular, with their gripping and cliffhanger plot lines and subject matters, people obviously wanted to be distracted by something exciting and in some cases more gruesome than the COVID-19 pandemic.
For me, reading has always been a way of distracting myself and building new worlds in my imagination. For many this too was the case for other people. Reading has brought comfort to people in a time of uncertainty and fear. That is what sums up the power of literature to me. Comfort and knowledge.
We are living in historical times, which in turn could pitch the imagination for writers to scribble their words down to join many dystopian fiction novels. Since I've never lived through anything quite as uncertain in my privileged Western life, you don't seem to recognise that you are living through something that will be taught to your children in 20 years time. That's insane! But, again this is where reading and literature comes in to the forefront. Literature can bring to life the thoughts and feelings of people today for those to read in the future. Many people have experience death and grief more than they could've expected over the past 18 months, yet it makes me think how will the future generations learn about this? It's what dystopian fiction is filled with; the uncertain.
The uncertainly has let us reach to books for the ease and certainty we need, as we invest in the characters and the plot rather than the reality we live in. A panel created by The Scottish Book Trust has commented: 'it's hard for me to imagine coping with the current lockdown situation without books'. Lockdown has increased reading, knowledge and comfort in literature and has allowed new readers to enter the world of it too. Even for young people reading has become a sense of comfort, as more parents/guardians have had the time to read to them and allow them access to various books. In some ways, lockdown has let us slow down to appreciate the small things in life. The small things can sometimes just be sitting down with a nice cup of hot warmth, and opening a book.
Delving in to a world that is so far from your own is the instant distraction we needed in lockdown. Maybe we needed an insight in to other worlds to appreciate ours. However daunting it may feel to be stuck in your home, books will always be your ailment for a lockdown, where uncertainty looms everywhere.
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