President Obama, while talking on the subject of empathy and how it helps him be a better president and citizen, said in an interview with The New York Review of Books, “The most important stuff I’ve learned I think I’ve learned from novels. It has to do with empathy…And the notion that it’s possible to connect with some[one] else even though they’re very different from you.”

I don’t mean to quote this to be political, but his words stood out to me because he said everything I feel about novels. This is why I read. I love being able to get into the head of another person—even if that person isn’t real. It allows me to understand the world through another perspective, and this is tantamount to better understanding other people.

We all have different lives and different obstacles that lead to the same emotions. While you may not be able to understand how it feels to say, be a war refugee, if you read about the pain another is experiencing, those feelings can be understood because no matter your economic status, your race, your nationality, you have the same raw emotions as every other person on this earth—that’s what connects us.

Empathy grows through every novel we read. We chip away at the mystery of humanity with every word. So what are you waiting for?

What books have taught you to be more empathetic?