John Connolly

And there are, it's not a huge,

group of people who are passionate readers you know increasingly that's an issue we have to address I am optimistic though I look at the next generation coming up and see I have bookseller friends and they've been kept going by teenagers and people in their 20s coming in and buying physical books that period of people wanting to read on screens it's largely dominated by middle aged people

Middle-aged people own Kindles and middle-aged people download books and younger people have become increasingly fascinated with the artefact of physical media.

And having a cultural marker in your life, having the book that you love on your shelf, having the album that you like on your shelf, rather than having it lost in this kind of digital morass.

I think so many of us who love books keep books that we've loved from childhood or books that were given to us by somebody or books we associate with a particular time in our life.

And it's that particular copy of the book.

Not that you want a new copy of it.

It's that battered copy you had as a teenager, that battered copy when you fell out of love with somebody.

And when you see it, you get this little rush back.

And those things are incredibly important in your life.

Those little cultural markers in your life, they will get you through very difficult times.

And I remember writing a book about nostalgia.

There is a department of nostalgia in the University of Southampton, which has spent a lot of time examining this.

And they actually say three times a week for your mental health and your emotional health.

Pick up something that you loved in your childhood.

Pick up a book or listen to a piece of music or watch a TV show that was important to you.

And don't let anybody tell you that it's a guilty pleasure.

Go and sit down and wallow in that.

Now, the past is a lovely place to visit, but we don't always want to live there.

But to take those time and to remain in touch with those things that were important to you all through your life are very, very good for your emotional health.