Introduction
Many people wonder and ask me ” Why is reading good for me? “, especially today when you can enjoy an endless amount of videos and media on the t.v or the web. It is a legitimate question, and to answer that I created this post.
Reading is one of life’s earliest skills we acquire. It is something we do every day in one way or another that we usually just take for granted. However, if you think about it, reading is a complex and intricate way of delivering meaning through signs and symbols. Before reading and writing language, humans had a limited way to deliver messages, only by speaking to each other.
Reading and writing changed everything. Humans could now pass their knowledge without ever seeing each other- through books and papers. Signs that signal you where to go and how to get there were created, and made-up stories that make your mind wander and imagine new experiences.
Reading is also one of the most common ways to “talk” to each other on the internet. It is a timeless form of communication. This is how you engage with the content on my website right now and how we communicate.
We can argue that without writing and reading modern society and life would never get to where it is today.
I think there are probably numerous reasons for why reading is good for you and benefits you can get from it – I’ll state 6 Amazing Reasons to explain why reading is good for you.
1. Develops thinking and Strengthens Your Brain
Whether you are reading fiction stories or academic papers, reading helps you develop your thinking and analytical skills. When you read your whole brain lights up and processes the information. You create new associations related to this new material and it invigorates your brain in the process. When you read you think of things in new ways and you develop new perspectives.
In a study conducted on this subject, they scanned the brains of people who read frequently. According to research on reading, people’s brains light up and many new connections occur between complex circuits in your brain. The somatosensory cortex also lit up. It is the area responsible for sensation and feeling in your brain. That means your brain is also able to relate to movement and pain when reading.
2. Imagination and Creativity
It has been found that reading helps you get more creative, and lets your imagination run wild. When reading a book, as opposed to watching a movie or a tv show, you can’t see how places, objects, and characters look like. It is up to you to imagine and create them in your mind.
Fortunately, our brain and mind are built exactly for this purpose and crave the extra stimulation it gets from imagining these scenes. If you are used to watching everything on t.v and videos, you might find it hard at first to create those scenes in your mind. But once you are able to imagine the scenes and pictures created in a book there is no limit to where you can go and be at.
A great book takes you to wonderful places. This will help you when you need to write an essay or work, or even when you aim to create something new of your own- your creativity will shine through.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ― Dr. Seuss
3. Learning new things
The more you read, the more things you will learn about. Whether you read about finance, psychology, nature, human behavior, health care and diet, beauty, and so on. Reading a great book is the fastest way to obtain great knowledge and expand your horizons.
When you read a book written on a certain subject, you gain thousands of hours of study, research, success, and even failures of the author who wrote it. You can connect to deep knowledge from all periods of human existence, through ancient Greece writers, to renaissance writings, through 17th-century philosophy, and to modern-day scientific writings.
What you read and absorb will go with you throughout life and new connections will appear in your mind. Suddenly a thing you deemed worthless might pop up in your mind and lead you in a new direction. Reading is a dynamic venture, one of the few things in life that the more you consume of the better. I have learned many things in life just from reading books and studies, things that open your eyes forever and open up worlds of knowledge to draw from.
4. Improve your memory and brain power
As we saw on the first point, reading helps your brain develop and thrive. Another great benefit of reading is that it improves your memory and concentration. When reading a book you need to concentrate deeply on the subject at hand. You need to focus on the line you are reading all while processing the information in your brain. At last, you also need to connect the newly found information to the information already stored in your brain.
These are many tasks your brain has to perform all at once and require great concentration it. This also improves your memory as you have to store the information you just collected and recall upon it once needed. Reading books is like a workout session for your brain! This is a great way to improve memory and concentration.
If you are a student it will help you get better at your studies and also get better grades in your exams. For older people, books have been found to lower the probability of Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other degenerative illness of the brain. This is because while learning and memorizing lots of blood and oxygen flows to your brain and helps create new cells and dispose of the older, weaker cells.
5. Living multiple lives
when you read a book, you can immerse yourself in new perspectives, characters, and different times. You can live multiple lifetimes inside of different books, go on adventurous journeys and travel the world and other galaxies from the comfort of your bedroom. A great book takes you on a journey with interesting characters and stories, it allows you to create a deep connection to the story and feel as if you have lived their lives yourself. Sometimes after reading such books you get the sense of waking up from a dream or fantasy of another life. It is that powerful.
Many times a good book will evoke serious questions over life and moral dilemmas. Some will bring great humor and laughter, while others will help you understand complex subjects deeply.
To this day there are characters I remember from books and wonder how their story went on. Every character you went on a journey with will stay with you forever, each had something special to teach you, and you had a great time together.
When you read books, you live multiple lifetimes and enjoy many special moments that may never occur for you in life today. As the saying of a famous author goes –
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” ― George R.R. Martin
6. Relaxation and longevity
Books are a great way to relax and wind down from work and busy life. When you read your mind and body enter deep relaxation. Reading is a very demanding activity. As you focus on this task at hand your mind lets go of other thoughts. These thoughts can include anxiety, stress, and things to do. That way you can enjoy the relaxation a book brings while letting your mind and body de-stress in the process.
It is also found that reading books promote longevity and increases the life span of readers from non-readers by approximately 2 years. It is hard to state the cause for it, though it might be related to the fact that reading books makes you more knowledgeable, including about what things are harmful to your health. Reading books also reduces the risk for Alzheimer’s and other brain illnesses as we said and that could be another reason for that.
To sum it up
If you are just starting your reading journey, or if you are a seasoned reader looking for great books to learn from check out my Book Recommendations section on the website. The aim is to bring as many high-level, excellent books that involve great thought and ideas inside them.
I encourage you to read daily and evolve yourself in the process. It is almost a given that you will find great joy in your reading journey while gaining many insights in the process.
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As always,
Limitless Reader
