Words: Lavinia Ionescu
Photos: Robert Blaj
June 2025
In an increasingly digital world, do we still enjoy books? Are we still drawn to the tactile experience they offer and the slow pace they demand from us? Their complexity and elegance? Here, I aim to explore how reading fits into our lives today and how it adapts to the spaces we inhabit: Are urban spaces still a preferred environment for reading? Where does the city and reading intersect in 2025, and to what extent does this interaction impact us?
I’ve often found myself exploring these questions through my own deeply personal journey with books. Literature, essays, stories. Short tales, novels, poetry. Philosophy, psychology, fiction… Unseen worlds color my immediate reality and add an unfamiliar richness to it. In the 1990s, in a small provincial town in Romania, discovering the reading room of the Călărași County Library—where I spent most of my afternoons after school—immersed me in the captivating atmosphere of magical realism, sparked my love for pre-Socratic philosophy, and introduced me to postmodern authors and entirely new universes. Even 25 years later, the memory of the library in the old Victoria Cinema still holds a certain mystique for me: my tiny portal to endless possibilities, hidden among green branches and winding paths by the Borcea branch of the Danube.
Word by word, page by page, I learned to savor the (delayed) pleasures of the act of reading; to adore these new cosmoses—unique spectacles of eccentric, infinite worlds that encouraged me to dream of something greater, even beyond the pages. Books taught me to love life, better understand society, and engage with it all with wonder and passion. I knew then that everyone deserves this experience and should be encouraged to seek it.
Spaces That Connect Us
When I entered university, the first major reading institution I came across was the Central University Library (BCU). My friends and I spent countless hours there—researching, flipping through books and articles, and preparing academic projects. It was in that library that I first felt that a passion for studying and love for books weren’t just a personal obsession but a force that connects us in society. Books really have the power to bring us together—literally and figuratively. At BCU, anyone can get a membership and dive into a world of their choice in one of its 12 specialized reading rooms. Among many others, over 6,800 works in mathematics, astronomy, botany, and psychology can be explored in the Minerva Room, while the Simion Mehedinți Room grants access to an extensive collection of American literature.
Another key institution dedicated to written heritage is the National Library of Romania (formerly the State Central Library). The country’s largest library, located on the Dâmbovița River, not far from Unirii Square, is a cornerstone for preserving and promoting the nation’s cultural memory in multiple forms. Here, anyone over 14, regardless of nationality, can register with just a passport and spend hours browsing its foreign-language titles or attending events.
A unique and valuable cultural gem in Bucharest, the Media Library of the National Dance Center is all about celebrating the heritage of dance and the performing arts. It serves choreographers, dancers, critics, students, researchers, and anyone else passionate about the field. Its collection includes books and periodicals on dance history and theory, critical thinking, performance theory, feminist studies, and more, alongside an international video dance archive.
For those seeking quieter spaces, one of the 30+ branches of the Metropolitan Library of Bucharest might be ideal. Access is free for all. I was impressed to see that, even during these troubled times, the Metropolitan Library and the City Hall of Bucharest are inaugurating a department of Nepali literature, with “openness towards all the communities that live and contribute to the development of our city whether they are tourists, seasonal workers, students, or refugees.” Named by the organizers as “a gesture of normality in a democratic and inclusive society,” this initiative is a reminder that libraries are spaces for meeting, respect, and intercultural understanding. “Libraries are for everyone,” just as society should be.
An Immersive Experience
Neuroscience studies show that immersing ourselves in books has countless benefits. It strengthens our ability to communicate clearly—both written and spoken. Through reading multiple authors, we come into contact with sentence structures rarely heard in conversation and expose us to diverse intellectual perspectives. By reading, we acquire the ‘power’ to see through someone else’s eyes, to confront new ideas, new ways of understanding the world. And that kind of empathy helps us interact better with the people around us.
From the desire to share the experience, book clubs and reading circles have emerged as fantastic ways to connect with others who read similar books and to build friendships based on this shared pleasure. Reading is the possibility of feeling connected to the world in a unique way. I fondly remember the time when Biblioteca Alternativă was active, first at Claca, then at Macaz – Bar Teatru Coop. (two former independent and autonomous centers for community activities and critical education in Bucharest), and the informal group Dysnomia, which for a while organized a series of circles starting from feminist and queer literature. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson, My Brilliant Friend from Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and All About Love by bell hooks were among the ruthless loves that I can say have shaped me over the last ten years.
Reading together with other people, besides discovering common affinities, helps reduce stress levels, improves mood, and, as I was saying, cultivates qualities such as patience, tolerance, emotional intelligence, and empathy. In 2025, because I love the Spanish language, I’m thinking of taking up this habit again and joining the reading group at the Cervantes Institute, organized at the Luis Rosales Library, where every two weeks I’ll be able to connect with the Spanish language and culture through literature.
But entry into the cultural world isn’t limited to institutions. While exploring the city, I also discovered more informal settings where the love of reading and learning remains a unifying bond between people and generations. Various cafés and tea houses—social spaces by definition—have embraced this passion for books, creating environments that invite reading. I suggest a visit to Seneca Anticafe, Ceainăria Green Tea, Beans & Dots, or Random House, some of the best-known spots for those interested in studying or co-working in a social setting. Other welcoming, bookish spaces include bookstores (and their adjoining cafés) such as Cărturești Carusel, Grădina Verona, or Librăriile Humanitas. And if you want to sip a delicious coffee while browsing independent magazines, Ototo is the one.
Why Reading (Books) Still Matters
Continuing the theme of reading’s positive effects, we find more and more information online. Cultivating a regular reading habit improves our attention span, teaching us not to lose it so easily. It serves as a “counterattack” against constant exposure to the fragmented, bite-sized content of social media and digital platforms, which “trains” us to keep us as distracted as possible. Dr. Gloria Mark, an emeritus professor at the University of California, has been studying the impact of digital environments on people’s lives, moods, and behaviors for over two decades. Compared to 2004, when the average attention span of a digital user was 2.5 minutes, today it has dropped to about 47 seconds, possibly even less now, in the age of TikTok. Reading a book is an exercise in patience and focus—the longer we stay absorbed in a book, the more we reinforce concentration over distraction.
From a cognitive perspective, reading is a demanding skill that requires synchronization between multiple neural networks. There isn’t a single area of the brain responsible for it; instead, it involves a complex cerebral collaboration that enables the seemingly “simple” act of reading. That’s why reading requires clear, systematic, and cumulative training, which over time helps create specific neural connections—vital for literacy. Moreover, in the grand scheme of homo sapiens’ existence on Earth, reading is a relatively new cultural phenomenon. Only after the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century did broader populations gain access to literacy. In this race against time, we must take responsibility for working on ourselves. We need experience—constant exposure—to strengthen our “expertise” in reading and maintain our focus and attention at an optimal level.
But with a little effort and an understanding of how our brain works, introducing, continuing, or, as the case may be, resuming the habit of reading will surely bring long-term benefits. Reading contributes to brain health, helps maintain an active memory that can prevent or delay cognitive decline in old age, stimulates focus, as well as creativity and the expansion of one’s imaginative world. It aids in deepening knowledge in a given field, accessing the vast depths of a subject of interest, and improving vocabulary—when we encounter unfamiliar words while reading, we absorb their meaning from context. Researchers at UCL, London, from the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, found that teenagers who read for pleasure in their free time knew 26% more words than their peers who didn’t.
Recently, I came across an interesting term—bibliotherapy, which translates to “healing through reading.” It’s a relatively new field of study, described as “a form of psychotherapy based on the interaction between an individual and a written text, whether prose or poetry, resulting in the reader’s improved well-being.” Under the guidance of a therapist or mental health practitioner, participants read, reflect, and discuss various literary works, either individually or in groups. And since we’re at the intersection of books, the mind, and the inevitable online world where we spend so much of our time, why not use it to our advantage and for our well-being?
Gáspár’s Book Club is an online community, a virtual space for book lovers who “dare to explore the corners of the human mind.” Every month, psychotherapist Gáspár György shares opinions and discussions on psychology books through his social media accounts. #IubimAceeașiCarte (We Love the Same Book) is “a connection that gives us the chance to have an honest conversation about the topics that pain us and that, for too many years, we have left in the realms of oblivion.”
Another initiative born purely out of a love for books—one I’m especially happy exists because it promotes literature among younger generations, who are much more active online—is Ruxandra Gîdea’s 4fără15 project. Ruxandra’s passion for literature has sparked a small reading revolution in the digital world—but also beyond social media. With a master’s degree in comparative literary studies from Utrecht University, she has co-organized cultural projects like Z9Festival—Sibiu’s annual festival of young literature—and aims to inspire and motivate her followers, fellow book lovers, to explore contemporary literature.
We Read to Find Ourselves
I’m sure there’s still so much more to say about books, literature, and the love of reading, and I believe community projects that promote them will always hold a special place in society. I can’t imagine a world without books, even though the way we consume content has changed over time. I’ve remained loyal to physical books, and every year, my friends and I make it a point to attend Bookfest or Gaudeamus, the most long-standing book fairs in the country. Here, we find the booths of local publishing houses—my favorites being Black Button Books (Romania’s first female-founded and female-run publishing house) and frACTalia—along with other agencies distributing Romanian and international books, academic publishers, and higher education institutions.
I’ll end with a quote from one of my favorite authors, Ursula K. Le Guin, to once again emphasize the importance of reading in shaping society: “We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel… is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.”