> We can get lost in the beauty of a landscape we've never visited before in a novel, which is the crux of the matter, even if it doesn't seem like it.

> You get to embody a particular character or world, which builds your own personal knowledge and empathy.

An aside. I don't like this. At least, IME I don't think this a good thing. If you read a novel - exclude fantasy or obvious reason - of something you never experienced, then that will condition your first experience of that thing. You will be bringing something dead - the words on the book - alive through you. You will lose your genuine expression.