How Fiction Helps Us Cope With the Real World via Self

When I teach Readers' Advisory in general and genres that appeal directly to the emotions, specifically [Horror, Romance, Gentle Reads, and Relationship Fiction], I spend a great deal of time talking about how important reading fiction is to us as humans.

Reading stories of fictional worlds, allows us a safe way to escape our day to day existence while also exploring new places, people, and situations. And because of the public libraries and the work we do to help match readers with the right book for them at that moment in their lives, it is an affordable way to escape.

Matching books with readers based on the feel of the book, not the plot, is at its essence what RA is. It is different from "bibliotherapy" however. We, as public library workers, are not trained to provide actual psychological help to our readers, many of who we barely know. But, we can help them find the right book, author, or even genre, to explore as a way to help themselves in the way they need at that moment. 

We  do this by being the middle person, a match maker, there  to open up the universe of options for them. To navigate the mass of titles and help them narrow down a choice, so they can find what they re looking for-- be it something for just a fun, quick, escape, something deeper, or anything in between.

Today, I want to share an essay by Jennifer Chen, from Self earlier this month entitled, "I Highly Recommend Romance Novels If You're Really Going Through It Right Now," where Chen talked personally about how Romance novels "...saved me when self-help couldn't."

This is a great resource for you, not only to look at the broader RA issues I am talking about, but also to see how a specific genre can provide a much needed real world connection.

If you are anyone who has ever helped any reader-- which should be all of you or why do you read this blog-- this reader reaction to finding the right books for them is a wonderful resource to ward understanding WHY we do this work and WHAT "success" looks like from a reader perspective.