Netflix can chill: it’s National Book Lovers Day

Nowadays, our beloved books too often play second fiddle to a binge on Prime or a Killing Eve marathon. Here’s a reason for us to ditch The Crown and cosy up with a good old fashioned novel this evening.

It’s a beautiful love affair

Psychologist Victor Nell looked at the state our mind falls into when we read for pleasure.

He found that when we’re at peak-pleasure we slip into a trance. Everything slows down. We’re not being raced along, moment to moment, scene to scene, as we would be in film and tv. We’ve got time to stand still and reflect. We can start placing our own lives and memories on to the story we’re immersed in.

• We fall deeper than just the words on the page and into the arms of the author, and things get profound and steamy (in a literary sense). It can feel a lot like falling in love.
• And the best thing is, you’re not exclusive to one author – you can be as unfaithful as you like.
• So go on, put away the smartphones for a day. Netflix can chill. It’s time you fell in love again.

And again. And again.