Let's Talk Bookish; Reading and Mental Health

It's Friday and perhaps it's time for another Let's Talk Bookish post courtesy of Book Nook Bits and the theme of the week was reading and mental health.

Here's the further prompts for this week's topic.

How does reading impact your mental health? If you’re feeling sad, do you read certain types of books, or reread old favorites? If you don’t read for a while, do you notice that impacting your overall well being? Do you ever take reading breaks?

In my case, reading has a positive impact on my mental health, in part as it give me a way to unwind and "forget" about the world for a while. As I'm very much a mood reader, when I'm sad/down, I often need some lighter and fast-paced books to keep me engaged, so no heavy-duty Russian classics for me if I'm in a crappy mood.

I can't deny that if I'm not reading for a while, I feel like there's something missing and that I'm overall a bit more "out of it" of sorts, at least mentally. That said, I have had a few reading breaks over the years when needed. A major reading block was after all the reason why I had to take a break from book blogging in the first place.