"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us," wrote Franz Kafka. Silke Heimes explains in her book the diverse functions of reading, drawing on surveys of people from various professions about their reading experiences. Books provide comfort, companionship, and a space for retreat. They serve as role models and offer potential for identification, transporting readers to foreign worlds and allowing them to arrive at themselves. Books stimulate thought and convey foreign cultures and worldviews. They connect the past, present, and future, offering support and guidance in an increasingly complex world. They encourage pauses and help forget time and space. Books have effects and side effects: fantastic and escapist. They are medicine - reading is healthy. Erich Kästner had a "lyrical home pharmacy." At the latest, after reading it.