✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.
This week’s topic is:
Mental Health and Books
Suggested by: Lin @ Lin’s Perpsective
Prompts: 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?
For as long as I can remember, books and reading have seen me through tougher times throughout my life, including several mental health dips in my late 20s and post-grad/early career years. Back then, I used to read a lot of dystopian and I loved the escapism of diving into worlds where characters could choose their destiny and stand up to oppressive regimes. Romance is a genre that I turned to a lot in my late 20s during tougher moments and I think I thrived on the angst as an emotional outlet to help me regulate what I was feeling. Something that I’m so appreciative of is how much mental health representation exists in books nowadays and in many different genres too. Growing up, discussions about mental health weren’t really something I saw in the books I read, so it was a ‘comforting’ experience reading about characters who were having similar thoughts and relatable experiences like me. Living in a society where mental health is still not openly discussed or accepted as an issue of concern, seeing this representation in books helped my younger self process thoughts and emotions, but even now, that relatability always makes me appreciate a book more.
As much as I enjoy those books though, I always have to make sure that I’m in the right headspace when reading it. As nice as it is to read about characters experiencing something similar or reflecting my thoughts/emotions, it can also be triggering if I’m feeling particularly sensitive to it—even if i may not realise it or even feel that way at the time I’m reading the book. That’s probably why there are more books on my TBR with mental health rep compared to the number of books I’ve read. But there were still many that I enjoyed/appreciated and would recommend too. Please do take care and check content/trigger warnings for these books before reading as some do cover topics/issues that can be very triggering!
Books I’ve Read
Books on my TBR
Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers who joined the discussion this week! 👇🏽
Jillian @ Jillian the Book Butterfly
The Abyssal Librarian
If I’ve missed your post this week, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments, and I’ll add you to this week’s list of community posts ASAP!
Have books helped you through a hard time? What books would you recommend?
dinipandareads 
I agree with you about being in the right headspace. When I am feeling dark, I cannot handle someone else’s mental health issue, not even a fictional character. I actually DNFed Elenor Oliphant twice. It was hitting too close to him in some way. I read seven of the other books and enjoyed them though. I read seven from your TBR, many were rated high by me.
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I’m a big fan of Matt Haig’s nonfictions, especially Reasons to stay alive that I look back fondly on. Anxious people is also a really good one!
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