<story><title>Can reading make you happier? (2015)</title><url>https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/can-reading-make-you-happier</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>snide</author><text>Reading, to me, is the best method to learn empathy. We all read differently, in our own headspace, but then need to distill that view through the godhead of a fictional character. Movies and TV can&amp;#x27;t touch that slow drip of mindcopy a book provides. TV we witness, books we live alongside. Often I&amp;#x27;m stuck in the personality of a book for weeks at a time, and it&amp;#x27;s impossible for the experience not to leave a footprint.&lt;p&gt;Happiness I&amp;#x27;ve found easiest to achieve with that  empathy. Understand those around you and know your place in the world and what is and is not possible to change. Being malleable in a group while still retaining a sense of self provides a way to travel and adapt in whatever situation you find. Only books provided me with enough experience to &amp;quot;know&amp;quot; myself and how I&amp;#x27;d react in certain scenarios.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think it matters much what you read. Whatever challenges you and gets you to see the world slightly askew.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>graemep</author><text>Books all some from a much wider range of authors than things like TV. Many authors write about what they know and there are authors from all historical times, and all cultures (current or historical) - as well as imagined ones, of course. I think a strength of books is that they are more likely to require you to adjust to the point of view of the author or the characters, rather adjusting the characters to be easy for you to identify with. That builds more empathy.</text></comment>
<story><title>Can reading make you happier? (2015)</title><url>https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/can-reading-make-you-happier</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>snide</author><text>Reading, to me, is the best method to learn empathy. We all read differently, in our own headspace, but then need to distill that view through the godhead of a fictional character. Movies and TV can&amp;#x27;t touch that slow drip of mindcopy a book provides. TV we witness, books we live alongside. Often I&amp;#x27;m stuck in the personality of a book for weeks at a time, and it&amp;#x27;s impossible for the experience not to leave a footprint.&lt;p&gt;Happiness I&amp;#x27;ve found easiest to achieve with that  empathy. Understand those around you and know your place in the world and what is and is not possible to change. Being malleable in a group while still retaining a sense of self provides a way to travel and adapt in whatever situation you find. Only books provided me with enough experience to &amp;quot;know&amp;quot; myself and how I&amp;#x27;d react in certain scenarios.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think it matters much what you read. Whatever challenges you and gets you to see the world slightly askew.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>MaiaIva</author><text>Reading as a method to learn empathy - 100%.&lt;p&gt;To me, diving into different stories and perspectives basically broadens the way I perceive life in general.&lt;p&gt;Some recent mind-bending gems to me were all books by Hanya Yanagihara and the supreme universe Liu Cixin has built.</text></comment>