Scientists got a group of students to read Pompeii by Robert Harris, a chapter a day for 19 days. Students being what they are, the researchers made sure they had done their homework by asking them questions. All through the process, they had been monitoring the readers’ brains. The neurological effects of having read the book persisted for some days. One bit of the brain that showed a heightened function ordinarily prepares the body to run after the subject has thought about running. If you read the exciting narrative of Pompeii, in which Vesuvius rains down hot ashes, you’d think about running all right.
What are we to make of this modest investigation? Is it little more than a sleeping dog dreaming of rabbits and jerking its legs about? For a human being to read a book is a little like having a dream. If symptoms persist, it suggests the author has really taken a grip.