Team Factend
Every year, there are thousands of books released. However, when was the last time you read a book? You might have come across people who cannot just put down a book. You think to yourself, ‘I wish I was able to do it but reading books is just not my cup of tea.’ well, true that benefits of reading books are not glaringly visible to a lot of people or let’s just say they find it to be a tiresome task. Still, it’s only because you haven’t found books that interest you or are more suitable to your calibre.
And it’s not like you don’t like reading altogether. You might have a habit of reading tweets or Facebook updates or even articles on the internet. So, the conclusion is not really whether or not you can read a book; it is whether you want to read a book or not. We understand that it might be challenging to motivate yourself to read a 300 or 400-page book when you can watch a movie about the same or listen to an audiobook or watch a YouTube video.
So, why must you invest your time in reading books that might take at least a week of your time?
The adventures of reading books is marvellous, and so is the knowledge that comes along with it. To be honest, people who love reading books live in their own fantasy world, driven by the characters in the book, their stories, and their aspirations. It is instead an incredible feeling of refreshment that comes along with reading a book. And then there are some ultimate benefits of reading books that might compel you to do so. Reading books is all about the experience that becomes a treasured part of your life. It is how you live a thousand lives in a single one.
And with that said, the following are some benefits of reading books:
10 Amazing Benefits of Reading Books
Benefit #1: It dares you to grow
The only way you can grow is when you learn how. You need to read those lines, characters, and squiggles until they become stories and meaningful narrations. And let’s not forget, reading is to mind what exercise is to the body. Even scientific studies claim that reading makes you smarter and improves blood flow to your brain. They also say that reading stimulates your mind and can even slow the progress of Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Reading, like solving puzzles and playing games like chess, has been found to be helpful with cognitive stimulation.
Benefit #2: It helps you be more creative and open-minded
As per research, people who read fiction experienced less of a cognitive closure than their counterparts. They were said to be more open-minded and thoughtful. Fiction helps you explore characters that you wouldn’t have read about otherwise. They let you understand people and their perspective as a spectator, read a story from a distance and understand the writer’s psyche into narrating a character the way they did. When you’re introduced to new ideas, you change the course of your analytical thinking and step into someone else’s shoes.
Benefit #3: It improves your conversational abilities and vocabulary
The more you read, the more words you get introduced to, and the more you can polish and improve your vocabulary and, by extension, your conversational skills. Being articulate and well-spoken is always a necessity in every profession. When you’re more confident while speaking, you can converse perfectly with even people from higher management. It aids your career to be well-read, well-spoken and learned on a variety of topics. The knowledge you gain from reading gives you lots to talk about with others. You are then prepared to indulge in more profound and fall more meaningful conversations while your peers stay focussed superficially.
Benefit #4: It challenges your perspective
Everything we learn during our early growth years results from what we’re taught, your surroundings, and our peer group. That is what builds your perspective on things, and without reading, we are to take our parent’s thought-process on things, topics, and people. However, when you read, you experience life from the eyes of another. You explore diverse angles on life’s most common situations that challenge everything you’ve learned till now. The best thing is, reading inspires empathy for the characters, their stories, decisions, and viewpoints different from your own, which can make you feel uncomfortable. While reading definitely uncovers different perspectives, it also offers an opportunity to read and understand them.
Benefit #5: It helps you remember
When you read a book, you remember an assortment of characters, their lives, backgrounds, ambitions, and histories throughout years to come. Now that’s a fair bit to remember, and all this new information creates new memories. Every recent memory creates synapses or strengthens the old ones. And your brains are marvellous things that can help you do so. Reading every day can improve your memory; it can help you learn how to store new data and recall memories more effectively. So, if you want to boost your brainpower, improve memory retention, and become an intelligent individual, reading is what you must invest your time in.
Benefit #6: Improves self-discipline and consistency
You will agree that as technology modernizes, our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Ina 5-minute span, an average person can divide their team working on a task, checking a mail, replying to a few people, monitoring their phones, and talking with co-workers. Not only does it elevate your stress levels, but it lowers productivity.
However, unlike skimming through tons of web pages, when you’re reading a book, it forces you to centralize your focus. All your attention is focused on a story, and the rest of the world just falls ways. Readers tend to immerse themselves into every minute detail of the story, absorbing the narration like a sponge. When you do so, your brain forms deeper connections and practices concentration.
Benefit #7: Reading means you aren’t alone
Over the course of our lives, we encounter several situations where, despite having a flock of people around us, we feel alone or lonely. These transitions, be it from changing schools, jobs, or cities, have a toll on our minds, making it harder for us to replace old relationships with new ones and adjust to the new surroundings. Some people might find transitioning to this new phase easy, while others might struggle to follow in those footsteps.
And books are a great way to find comfort in a new place, dream about the characters mentioned, and develop a form of companionship when you have no one to talk to. It is also how you feel that the only person you can count on is yourself, and just like in the books, everything will fall into its place with time. Books are a great way to get rid of loneliness and feel that you aren’t alone.
Benefit #8: It increases cultural knowledge without having to travel far
Reading books set in different cultures that differ from our own provides knowledge of those cultures that otherwise would have been known to our eye. You also get to know the emotional and spiritual lives of the people in those cultures without having to invest too much money in actually travelling to the location until you can do so. When you read stories, you gain a deeper understanding of cultures, their ins, and outs, and get to improve your knowledge about the world.
During your lifetime, you might as well not get to enjoy these cultures, but you can absolutely read about them and build your own imagination. This is one of the best benefits of reading books, you put yourself into someone else’s place, and your world goes beyond the words written on the image. You start imaging their appearances, emotions, and surroundings. And that is how you leave with many experiences rather than a few while reading a book.
Benefit #9: It reduces stress and situations that lead to it
Reading about something means you’ll lose yourself in it. A good novel is an excellent way to relax your mind, ease tension in your muscles and heart, and allow your brain to wander to new ideas, imagination, and thoughts. It is like a mini-vacation for your brain, which is why many people love reading a book to have a good night’s sleep.
It is no surprise that reading is good for your brain. The more you improve your knowledge about cultures and people, the more you grow academically, socially, physically, and the most important, mentally. It is the perfect way to dive your brain into something relaxing, rejuvenating, and replenishing.
Benefit #10: It betters your analytical thinking skills
Have you ever read a fantastic novel and solved the mystery before you even finished the book. If so, it means you put your critical and analytical thinking skills to work, took details provided during the book, and sorted them out to determine the real culprit in this scenario. That same ability that helps you analyze the details in a book can be put to good use in the real world. Moreover, should you ever have the opportunity to discuss the book with others, you’ll be sharing your opinions, taking time to consider all the aspects, and letting your analytical capabilities do the legwork. And let’s be honest, good analytical skills are what you need to excel in today’s competitive ecosystem, and reading books is a way to sharpen your senses.
Conclusion
If you are impressed with these benefits of reading books and want to start this new habit, then:
- Find the genre that interests you the most
- Read their synopsis on Goodreads account and then pick 12 books you would like to read this year
- Join reading groups to challenge and encourage your reading habits
- Try reading 15-20 minutes every day and make it a habit
And within no time, you’ll be on your way to reading amazing books and building a habit that will assist you for a long time.
