Reading can be Addictive, Who Knew

Addiction - a biopsychosocial disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences.

Our love for books and reading takes many different forms. Each reader has unique preferences, unique reading habits, and a different way of loving books. But what happens when our love for reading takes a more twisted turn, what can we do when we start loving books just a little too much? Can our love for reading develop into a reading addiction or can we develop an addiction to books?

As it turns out, there is quite a lot to explore on this topic and I have neither the time nor expertise to cover adequately this potentially dark side of your favorite hobby. Suffice it to say; yes, your reading habits can develop into an addiction. Who knew, right?

Even the most banal activities can become addictive if we abuse them. Just like you can become addicted to food, alcohol, or anything else that brings you a form of joy, your brain can rewire itself into developing an addiction to reading under certain circumstances.

An addiction to reading is usually not as serious as the others that come to mind. After all, reading is an incredibly beneficial activity that can help you become a much better version of yourself. In fact, it is essential in today’s society. How else would we understand computers, instructions, menus or maps for instance? The problem appears when your love for books starts to take over your desire to be connected to the real world.

The addiction comes in two different forms: an addiction to the actual reading as an activity or bibliophilia, and an addiction to books as objects or bibliomania. However, unlike the term "bibliomania", which describes a pathological obsession, bibliophilia is not considered a psychological problem nor does it bring any type of problem to people who have it.

Although it is not an essential requirement to say that someone is a bibliophile, the truth is that most people with this characteristic share a series of specific personality and psychological traits.

One of the most important is introversion. Individuals with this characteristic prefer to do activities alone rather than be with other people, reading generally being one of their favourites. This does not imply that they cannot relate properly, but simply that they are inclined not to.

On the other hand, individuals with a greater than usual love of reading tend to have above-average intelligence. Reading is considered a psychologically demanding activity, so in general only those individuals who are more intelligent than normal can end up developing a great interest in this hobby.

Finally, another very common trait among people with bibliophilia is curiosity. Reading is one of the best ways to learn, to understand how the world around us works, and to expose ourselves to new ideas. This is one of the main reasons that bibliophiles admire books so much.