The importance of reading is undeniable. It doesn’t start and end with improving your grades in school–it goes over and beyond it. If you’re an avid reader, you probably know this too well. However, if you’re not yet the biggest fan of reading, it’s never too late to begin and experience its many benefits.
So whether you’re asking, “Should I read another book?” or “Should I start making reading a habit?” we’re sure the list below will nudge you into making the right direction.
- Reading enriches your knowledge
Written materials, be it a book or newspaper, have been used by ancestors to pass the knowledge and information from one generation to another. With all the knowledge these printed materials hold, we have come to a point where reading feels like discovering a chest box or storehouse of knowledge.
Beyond your school textbooks, there are plenty of books on history, literature, culture, and law. There are research papers on science and mathematics. There are non-fiction books about self-development, society, and life in general. Once you read through any of these materials, you’ll surely enrich your mind and be in possession of knowledge no one can ever take away from you.
- Reading improves your memory
Are you having a hard time memorizing? Perhaps, you’re thinking of keeping a sharp memory until your hair’s gray. If so, reading is on your side.
By being a reader, you exercise your brain and strengthen it. You help it retain information or existing memories and easily recall short-term memory.
- Reading strengthens your critical thinking skills
If you have been a reader, you will be exposed to different situations and equipped with various knowledge. These, in turn, will give you a broader perspective on things.
When faced with a problem, you will not give solutions based on guesses and sheer luck. You will carefully consolidate the information on hand and your knowledge from reading. Your solution or judgment will be based on prior knowledge, solid facts, and wise judgment.
- Reading builds your vocabulary
Another benefit of being a reader is encountering new words often until you build your vocabulary. At times, you read terms repeatedly and you get to easily discern how words are used in different sentences. With an expansive vocabulary, you can understand various reading materials and even complex texts. As a bonus, you may also encounter and learn foreign languages.
- Reading helps you become a better writer
With a mind packed with knowledge, a wide vocabulary, familiarity with authors writing styles, nothing can stop you from writing!
All thanks to reading, you will have a colorful imagination, ideas, and stories in your mind that you would like to tell using your own voice. You have an edge as you can play around with words. As you have read different types of books, you can also adopt from authors’ writing styles or evolve and have your own.
- Reading will help you clearly express yourself
Frequent reading will also help you become a great speaker. For one, you can improve your elocution and pronunciation. With information and ideas under your sleeve, you can also easily engage in conversations, speak confidently about your insights, and clearly lay down your points.
- Reading boosts your focus
Because of our fast-paced world, concentrating and focusing have become a challenge. And these two are something we can’t ignore as these are our gateway to thinking.
Thankfully, reading is here to help and ground us. Once you become a reader, you will steadily be able to maintain your focus for a longer period. In time, if you’re fully immersed in a book, all your focus will fall into it, and the world around you will blur out.
- Reading strengthens the brain
Reading isn’t just in preparation for day-to-day school and life activities. It’s also in preparation for the future way ahead of you. Several studies have shown that reading is linked to better memory and slow cognitive decline as it is a brain-stimulating activity.
- Reading prepares you for good sleep
Imagine holding a form of entertainment at night without notifications popping every now and then.
After the hustle and bustle of the day, it is nice to just curl up with a good book. Books and reading materials allow your mind to focus and wind down. Paper books, in particular, would help you sleep more easily as it does not emit blue light that restrains the production of melatonin, a hormone associated with the human’s sleep cycle.
- Reading is healthy for overall health
Reading benefits both your physical and mental health.
For one, the information you have might come in handy when approaching a new friend. It would help you start conversations, develop your social skills, and create relationships. It will also help you understand the beliefs, traditions, and ways of people around you.
On top of this, reading helps reduce the likeliness of developing cognitive illnesses as well as stress-induced illnesses. You will also have quality sleep if you reduce screen time by reading before bed.
Reading is a fantastic habit to pick up. It takes you to different places with just a single chapter. It fills your mind with knowledge and wonders. It calms you down with just a flip of a page. It helps you in many different ways, not just today, but always.
Are you ready to read?
