What Reading Does

I've been thinking a lot lately about the experience and value of reading fiction. Is the world made a better place because of the empathy for differing experiences that the reader develops in the act of reading? Does it make you smarter? These sorts of claims fall apart pretty quickly upon inspection. But what occurred to me is that reading a (good) novel is simply an excellent way to use your mind. It certainly exempts you for a few hours from the neurotic monkey mind that arises when we sit around mulling over our concerns and problems. At any rate, these sorts of ideas seem to me inherent to this great quote from Vivian Gornick I encountered this week while reading the Los Angeles Review of Books.

"The companionateness of those books! Of all books. Nothing can match it. It’s the longing for coherence inscribed in the work — that extraordinary attempt at shaping the inchoate through words — it brings peace and excitement, comfort and consolation. But above all, it’s the sheer relief from the chaos in the head that reading delivers."