Discussing why it's important to read. In this age of technology sometimes the printed book gets overlooked or cast aside. Today you will find out why reading is essential to your health and well-being and I've included quotes of wisdom from others about its value to them.
Unwrapping 10 reasons why we should read more....
1. Reading develops your verbal abilities. Although it doesn't always make you a better communicator, those who read tend to have a more varied range of words to express themselves about how they feel and to prove a point. The good news? The more you read the higher level of your vocabulary to use in every day life.
2, Improves your focus and concentration. Unlike short reads like blog posts and magazine/news articles, sitting down with a book takes a lot longer. You must focus and concentrate for a longer period of time. To do this you must close off the outside world and engage with the text before you. Over time this will certainly strengthen your attention span.
3. Readers enjoy the arts and improve the world. A study done by the NEA explains that people who read for pleasure are many times more likely than those who do not to visit museums and attend concerts, and almost three times as likely to perform volunteer and charity work. Readers are active in the world around them, and that engagement is critical to individual and social well-being.
4. It improves your imagination. You are only limited by where your imagination can take you. The worlds created by books, as well as other's views and opinions, will expand your understanding of possibilities. By reading a written description of an event or place, your mind is visualizing that image, instead of having the image placed in front of you when you watch TV or a movie. That is often why we are disappointed in the movie version of a book because our minds did a much better, and personal job, of visualizing that book all on our own.
5. Reading makes you smarter. Books offer a wealth of learning at a much cheaper price than taking a course. It gives you a chance to consume huge amounts of research in a very short time. Heavy readers tend to display greater knowledge of how things work and who or what people were. Lots of books at home have been strongly linked to academic achievement.
6. Reading makes you interesting and more attractive. You have an arsenal of information that will come in handy in any academic or scholarly conversation. You will hold your own and add to the conversation which is very inclusive to any group. When you engage you yourself improve your knowledge and conversation skills.
7. It reduces stress. Studies show that if you stop and read silently for as little as six minutes your heart rate slows down and your muscles relax. Now that's good news.
8. Reading improves your memory. Typically when you read, you have more time to think. It gives you a unique pause time for comprehension and insight. With oral language "when you watch a film, or listen to a podcast, you don't press pause." The benefits of this increased activity keeps your mind sharp and your learning capacity nimble.
9. You can find out more about yourself and even create a better you. Harold Bloom in his book "How to Read and Why", that we should read slowly, with love and openess. We should read to increase our wit and imagination, our sense of intimacy and to heal our pain. When you become who are created to be you can then reach out to help others. Books can give us an opportunity to have experiences that we haven't had and allow us to learn the life skills they entail. Books can fast track you into creating yourself.
10. For entertainment. If books were not entertaining reading would be boring and a chore. Reading is not only fun, but it has all the added benefits that we have covered so far. A good book can keep us engaged and amused while developing our life skills ... how amazing is that!
Unwrapping some quotes for you to enjoy...
When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.
-Maya Angelou
There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.
-Marcel Proust
The books I loved in childhood - the first loves - I’ve read so often that I’ve internalized them in some really essential way: they are more inside me now than out.
-Donna Tartt
We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.
-Henry Miller
When the Day of Judgment dawns and people, great and small, come marching in to receive their heavenly rewards, the Almighty will gaze upon the mere bookworms and say to Peter, ‘Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them. They have loved reading.’
-Virginia Woolf
I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.
-JK Rowling
Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.
-Joyce Carol Oates
A book is really like a lover. It arranges itself in your life in a way that is beautiful.
-Maurice Sendak
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Read on and read always!
It's a wrap.
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