Benefits Of Reading: 10 Reasons Why You Should Read

By Alastair Brown – author of the Joe Beck crime thriller books.

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28/01/2020

Reading is good for more than just entertainment. Committing even just a part of the day, every day, to reading can seriously improve your life. Reading can make you smarter, kinder, more relaxed, and worldly-wise. You’ll see improvements in your breadth of vocabulary and depth of articulation of prose. You’ll become more aware of emotions and more adept at conveying how you feel, and you’ll become better at expression through words. That’s right, reading even helps improve your writing. It’s a fundamental skill that every individual should develop and practice, frequently, because by reading, you will become your best you.

Let’s explore some benefits of reading, so you can see the rewards you’ll reap for years to come.

1. Reading helps you learn. People who read tend to be, on average, more intelligent than those who don’t. After all, the goal of a pricey college education is to be well-enough read that you can formulate theories and articulate arguments that either support or contest against established points. And whether you read educational or fictional novels, you will learn something. You’ll gain knowledge places and personas, objects and things, situations and scenarios. You’ll come to understand what you didn’t know before, and you’ll come to be a more interesting, widely-informed individual to be around.

2. Reading improves your memory. Reading is an exercise in mental stimulation that helps keep the brain active. When you read, you need to remember the names of characters, places and objects. You need to recall what they were described like and what situation they were in. Something that happens at the end of a story often has linkage to what happened at the start, which means you have to be able to remember what happened back then to be able to understand the outcome now. Reading makes you do this, and it helps to slow down your decline in mental power, preserving your memory into old age.

3. Reading hones your analytical skills. When you read a novel, you’ll be reflecting on what you’ve read, forecasting what’s to come and generally critiquing the author’s work. This is called analysis and you’ll be analyzing what you’re consuming. Reading serves to hone these qualities and broaden your mind. The more you read, the more you’ll get to understand situations and scenarios better than you did before, the more you’ll analyze and assess, and the better you’ll become at it.

4. Reading expands your vocabulary. When you read, you’ll be exposed to new words and turns of phrase. And the more you read, the more you’ll be exposed to. Along the way, you’ll come to understand what the words and phrases mean and you’ll pick them up, using them yourself as you go. The average person who reads is able to express themselves better than the average person who doesn’t.

5. Reading improves your writing skills. Writing is an art and you study it by reading. Reading what others have written shows you how to write yourself. It lets you see principles and boundaries, identify the right applications from the faux pas. This, in turn, allows you to hone your skills. If you know a great writer, you should read as much of their works as possible. But don’t limit yourself to one style. Keep it broad and keep it consistent.

6. Reading helps you relax. It reduces stress and provides comfort, and allows you to escape from the real-life problems that are clouding your mind. Reading can make your imagination run wild and put you in a world of your own, free from worry, stress, burdens and debts. It gives you some ‘you time,’ where you can kick back and relax with little care in the world.

7. Reading improves your concentration. Often time, when we read, we have to do so against the distractions of the world around us, be it the chatter of strangers on a bus, the music blaring from someone’s headphones, the relentless sounds of the traffic or notifications of incoming emails. You have to block it all out and continue to read if you want to get to the end and finish the story. This requires focus and concentration, and reading helps to strengthens them.

8. Reading enhances your emotional intelligence. Reading books doesn’t just make you smarter—it can make you a kinder, more emotionally-aware person as well. According to a study published in 2013, people who consume literary fiction have an easier time sensing and relating to emotions in other people.

9. Reading helps families bond. Reading stories is not only a great way to spend quality time and bond with your kids, it’s a way to help them develop into the admirable adults you want them to be. Whilst reading to your child, you’re not only teaching them how to read, you’re developing their language, stimulating their brain and helping them build the situational intelligence and empathy they’ll need in life to succeed.

10. Reading is entertaining. Whether it’s a novel or novella, every book tells a story. Some are intriguing, while others are fun. Some are pleasing, while others serve to stun.

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