Why do readers buy books they never read, stay up too late, cry over fictional characters, and reread favorites? A scientist explains reader psychology.

I wasn’t supposed to be near the books. I had a list. I had a plan.

But the books were right across the aisle.

Then I saw her. A woman, mid-thirties, two small children buckled into the cart, a box of goldfish crackers being slowly destroyed by the younger one. She was standing in front of the book display with the focused calm of someone defusing a bomb.

She already had two books in the cart. She picked up three more. Didn’t hesitate. Didn’t calculate. Just added them with the quiet confidence of a woman who has made peace with her choices.

She was not going to read all five of those books. I knew this because I am her. I went home with one more book I didn’t need and couldn’t stop thinking about why we do this.

Here’s the thing about being a pharmacist who writes fantasy romance: I’m wired to ask why. So when I kept noticing my own reader habits and couldn’t explain them, I did what any analytically-minded introvert would do. I started investigating. And then, because I figured I wasn’t the only one, I started writing it up to share.

That became a little side project called A Scientist Explains Readers. Four issues in (over on Substack), and here’s what I’ve found on us: