Let’s Talk Bookish is a monthly bookish discussion meme created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @ Book Nook Bits and Dini @ Dinipandareads! It’s recently moved to this lower-frequency posting schedule which you can check out here.
August’s prompt is about books and mental health, and I’m posting it a day late because of the issue where I can’t schedule posts, ugh! Anyway, here’s the prompt:
Are there any books that have helped you during a difficult moment in your life? What books would you deem a must-read-must-have when it comes to mental health awareness? What are your favorite book/s that feature a main character going through a rough patch?
Books in general are really important to my mental health. I do better when I make plenty of time to read, and I read more when I’m doing better — it’s one of those virtuous cycles.
I don’t read self-help (in general, there’s been one or two) and the like, but I do have a fiction book that has been an important part of figuring out how to deal with my anxiety better. The first trigger was an article or blog post that I’ve never found again which says the opposite of anxiety is curiosity: anxiety makes you scared, makes you close up, makes you run away, while curiosity is all about being open to something, learning more about it, sitting with it.
At some point, I made a connection with Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. While Ged fears and runs from the monster that his shadow has become, he’s mastered by it; once he turns and seeks it out, seeks to embrace it, it can no longer harm him — more than that, it makes him incredibly powerful.
Reading that as a metaphor for mental health… welp.
I don’t really have any recommendations for books that feature characters going through mental health struggles, though I did recently read Cassandra Khaw’s Find Me Where It Ends, which is both literally and figuratively and at pretty much every level you can think of about suicide. It’s a rough read, and one I found it hard to read as a result, but it’s beautifully written and I do recommend it if that’s the kind of narrative you’re looking for/enjoy. It’s out in October, if I remember rightly.
Of my other recent reads, there is of course Mistakenly Saving the Villain, which involves Yue Wuhuan dealing with severe trauma and what seems like OCD. I… would not recommend it as a serious book about mental health, since it’s a fantasy romance (specifically danmei, so in translation) and Song Qingshi (Yue Wuhuan’s saviour and love interest) absolutely enables him — if anything it’s more of a “what not to do”! But I’ve been having a lot of fun with it: despite the darkness of Yue Wuhuan’s past, most of it is surprisingly light.
Great post! Books and reading have been a big part of my mental health journey as well, and I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done without it during the harder times of my life! Hmm, interesting comment about anxiety and curiosity! That does make me wonder. I still haven’t read The Wizard of Earthsea although I have it on my TBR. It’s one on my “that book is very intimidating” list, lol. Love that you’ve also included a recommendation that’s basically a ‘what not to do’ — important too! Thanks for taking part in this LTB 🙂
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Definitely. Sometimes mental health issues have made it harder to read than I’d like… but reading always helps.
I love The Wizard of Earthsea, and it’s a fairly easy entry into the Earthsea world, really! I do recommend it!
A Wizard of Earthsea has been on my to-read list for so long, I really need to get round to it! A book that helped me through a very dark time with my mental health, and which I have re-read several times since, is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I find it very comforting and hopeful
I do recommend, it’s a lovely book! Even without reading it as a mental health parable.
Oh I like that bit about curiosity being the opposite of anxiety, I have to remember that. I struggle with anxiety and mental health issues a fair bit. I’ve read a whole bunch of nonfiction self help books as well as fiction books that deal with mental health topics. Just recently reviewed a nonfiction book about self regulation that was very helpful as well as a YA book about a neurodivergent and asexual main character that dealt with mental health a bit as well. There definitely have been a lot of books I’ve read over the years that I found impactful when it comes to mental health topics.
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It was a very useful way of framing things at the time, and it continues to help a lot!
I’ve found most non-fiction about mental health a bit… obvious, but then I have had proper one-to-one CBT sessions and even EMDR, so I have quite a high base level of knowledge.
I’m so sad I missed out on this prompt as it’s so great and also very interesting to hear different people’s perspectives on it. Like you I think I find that I feel a lot better mentally when I read more, and I’ve found that when I stop engaging with reading especially (though this also includes with watching things) then it’s a warning sign that I’m not feeling well.
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Definitely. If I find that I’m more often turning to video games instead… well, sometimes that’s fine, but it’s a bit of a warning sign, especially if what I’m digging into isn’t narrative-driven and is more bitty.
When I was in my early teens life kind of fell apart for me. I read Dune when I was 13. It was a difficult read for me, but the Bene Gesserit (can’t remember if I’m spelling it right) regarding mental strength and facing fears helped me cope.
I reread it in my 30’s and discovered why it was so hard to read. Frank Herbert couldn’t maintain a viewpoint! Very confusing. So while 30 something me didn’t find it near as inspired as 13 year old me, 13 year old me still appreciates the help it gave her at the time.
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Ohh, yep, I know what you mean! I can see how that would’ve helped and meant a lot.