“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.” – Christopher Morley"

This post simply does not need any introduction or further explanation. Reading is good and everybody should be doing it, no matter how busy or occupied you are, irregardless of your age. Happy reading!

1. Stimulates the Mind / Exercises the Brain – Studies have shown that staying mentally stimulated can slow the progress of (or possibly even prevent) Alzheimer’s and Dementia, since keeping your brain active and engaged prevents it from losing power. Just like any other muscle in the body, the brain requires exercise to keep it strong and healthy, so the phrase “use it or lose it” is particularly apt when it comes to your mind.

2. Reduces Stress – No matter how much stress you have at work, in your personal relationships, or countless other issues faced in daily life, it all just slips away when you lose yourself in a great story. A well-written novel can transport you to other realms, while an engaging article will distract you and keep you in the present moment, letting tensions drain away and allowing you to relax.

3. Improves Knowledge – Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information, and you never know when it might come in handy. The more knowledge you have, the better-equipped you are to tackle any challenge you’ll ever face. Additionally, here’s a bit of food for thought: should you ever find yourself in dire circumstances, remember that although you might lose everything else-your job, your possessions, your money, even your health-knowledge can never be taken from you.

4. Greater Vocabulary – The more you read, the more words you gain exposure to, and they’ll inevitably make their way into your everyday vocabulary. Being articulate and well-spoken is of great help in any profession, and knowing that you can speak to higher-ups with self-confidence can be an enormous boost to your self-esteem. It could even aid in your career, as those who are well-read, well-spoken, and knowledgeable on a variety of topics tend to get promotions more quickly (and more often) than those with smaller vocabularies and lack of awareness of literature, scientific breakthroughs, and global events. Reading books is also vital for learning new languages, as non-native speakers gain exposure to words used in context, which will ameliorate their own speaking and writing fluency.

5. Improves Memory – When you read a book, you have to remember an assortment of characters, their backgrounds, ambitions, history, and nuances, as well as the various arcs and sub-plots that weave their way through every story. That’s a fair bit to remember, but brains are marvellous things and can remember these things with relative ease. Amazingly enough, every new memory you create forges new synapses (brain pathways)and strengthens existing ones, which assists in short-term memory recall as well as stabilizing moods. How cool is that?

6. Better Analytical Thinking Skills – Have you ever read an amazing mystery novel, and solved the mystery yourself before finishing the book? If so, you were able to put critical and analytical thinking to work by taking note of all the details provided and sorting them out to determine “whodunnit”. That same ability to analyze details also comes in handy when it comes to critiquing the plot; determining whether it was a well-written piece, if the characters were properly developed, if the storyline ran smoothly, etc. Should you ever have an opportunity to discuss the book with others, you’ll be able to state your opinions clearly, as you’ve taken the time to really consider all the aspects involved.

7. Improved Focus and Concentration – In our internet-crazed world, attention is drawn in a million different directions at once as we multi-task through every day. In a single 5-minute span, the average person will divide their time between working on a task, checking email, chatting with a couple of people (via gchat, skype, etc.), keeping an eye on twitter, monitoring their smartphone, and interacting with co-workers. This type of ADD-like behaviour causes stress levels to rise, and lowers our productivity. When you read a book, all of your attention is focused on the story-the rest of the world just falls away, and you can immerse yourself in every fine detail you’re absorbing. Try reading for 15-20 minutes before work (i.e. on your morning commute, if you take public transit), and you’ll be surprised at how much more focused you are once you get to the office.

8. Better Writing Skills – This goes hand-in-hand with the expansion of your vocabulary: exposure to published, well-written work has a noted effect on one’s own writing, as observing the cadence, fluidity, and writing styles of other authors will invariably influence your own work. In the same way that musicians influence one another, and painters use techniques established by previous masters, so do writers learn how to craft prose by reading the works of others.

9. Brings Inner Peace & Tranquility – In addition to the relaxation that accompanies reading a good book, it’s possible that the subject you read about can bring about immense inner peace and tranquility. Reading spiritual texts can lower blood pressure and bring about an immense sense of calm, while reading self-help books has been shown to help people suffering from certain mood disorders and mild mental illnesses.

10. Cheap Entertainment – Though many of us like to buy books so we can annotate them and dog-ear pages for future reference, they can be quite pricey. For low-budget entertainment, you can visit your local library and bask in the glory of the countless tomes available there for free. Libraries have books on every subject imaginable, and since they rotate their stock and constantly get new books, you’ll never run out of reading materials. If you happen to live in an area that doesn’t have a local library, or if you’re mobility-impaired and can’t get to one easily, most libraries have their books available in PDF or ePub format so you can read them on your e-reader, iPad, or your computer screen. There are also many sources online where you can download free e-books, so go hunting for something new to read!

11. Improves Listening Skills – What parent doesn’t want their child to be a good listener? The experience of being read to helps children develop good listening skills by keying them into the components of language. Through reading they learn to recognize phonemes (the sound building blocks of language), learn new words to add to their oral vocabularies and connect written words to their real world applications.

12. Builds Early Literacy Skills – Before a child can read independently she must have phonemic awareness and a basic understanding of phonics. Phonemic awareness or the understanding that words are made up of distinct sounds that affect their meaning is the precursor to reading. Reading aloud to your child is one of the main ways to help him develop phonemic awareness. Beyond this, in order to read, a person must understand that there is a connection between letters and sounds. Without this knowledge letters are just squiggles on a page! When you read with your child she learns that print is a representation of the words you say aloud. Repeated experiences with reading allow this understanding to grow. The single greatest factor in a child’s ability to read is early experiences being read aloud to.

13. Aids in Pre-school / Kindergarten – In this day and age children are expected to come into kindergarten with a strong knowledge base. Today’s kindergarteners are expected to enter the classroom on day one with a knowledge of upper and lower case letters of the alphabet, the ability to recognize basic shapes and colors and the ability to count to ten. Reading books tailored towards youngsters with your child helps them develop these important and necessary skills.

14. Start Young, Start Early – Generally, the more time you are exposed to something and the more time you spend practicing it, the better you’ll become at performing it. This is absolutely true for reading. Research shows that children who have repeatedly been exposed to books from birth generally exhibit strong reading abilities.

15. Improves Academic Performance – There is a strong correlation between a child’s ability to read and her academic performance. Because so much of our schooling relies on our abilities to read, children must have strong reading skills to succeed and thrive in school. [Source]
Improves Earning Potential and More Likely to Be Financially Stable – For every year that a person spends reading (either independently or being read aloud to), his/her lifetime earning potential goes up considerably. For a time investment of approximately 87 hours a year (20 minutes a day for 5 days a week), you can increase your child’s ability to support him or herself in the future considerably.

16. Improves Relationships – Because we are busy it is difficult to have “quality” one-on-one time with our children without distractions. Building 20 minutes into each day for reading together provides this important bonding time. There is nothing more wonderful than snuggling a young child on your lap while reading a few storybooks aloud. Even if your child is beyond the “snuggling” stage, spending 20 minutes reading independently provides you with quiet, uninterrupted time together engaged in the same activity.

17. Greater Empathy – A good fiction book will help you have more empathy. A University in the Netherlands found that when you put yourself emotionally into a story you’ll have higher level of empathy – understanding of others emotions.

18. Become Sexier – Reading is the new sexy. A recent study by Prokosch found that after physical appearance intelligence is one of the most attractive qualities. So, keep on reading and go to class. A study recently confirmed the belief that being (or appearing) smart makes you more attractive to others. In fact, it’s one of the sexiest traits in the eyes of a majority of women.

19. Become More Interesting – People who met Theodore Roosevelt were impressed at his ability to hold a conversation about any conceivable topic. How did he do it? Through devouring books. When you read alot you’ll have more perspective and understanding, you’ll become one of those extremely interesting people.

20. Keep Yourself Updated – These days what was cutting edge 5 years ago is now old school. If you want to stay at the top of your industry and crush it, reading the latest books is important. Through reading you can learn anything.

21. Be More Successful – Research has shown that the more you read, the smarter you become, and that reading directly affects a child’s intellectual development.

22. Improves a child’s probability of staying in school – One of the main reason why children drop out of school these days is due to the lack of academic performance. With poor results, sources of motivation are hard to come by, giving reasons for them to quit and search for different avenues to pursue their dreams. Reading improves knowledge and trains one to be better at things that one aspires to excel at – with this a foundation can be established to build the confidence that they need to fully experience the education that they deserve. One study confirmed that children who read for pleasure do far better at school. Readers not only made more progress in vocabulary and spelling but also math.

23. Don’t Get Left Out – Almost everything anyone is ever talking about stems from a book, or an idea that was rooted in one. The reward comes from having read through the same lines that someone else has and recognizing in their words a path that you’ve already tread. It becomes your own because your take on the story is guaranteed to be individual, making your experience all the richer and all the more personal to you.
24. Be Wherever You Want, Whenever You Want – Reading about something is as close as you can get to actually being there without actually being there. A contrarian might suggest he’d rather have adventures than read about them, and that sticking your nose in a book is no substitute for getting your hands dirty. It’s a fair point, but some of us are saddled with responsibilities that keep us from sailing the Indian Ocean with a disgraced young lord looking for redemption, or walking the Parisian underworld between the wars, looking for women and enough money to pay for them. The point is, when you’ve read a novel, you’ve lived through the story.

25. Be A Better Leader – Life requires relationship. Each of us interact with others on a daily basis. And our lives are either giving life to others or draining it from them. I want my life to give life to others and inspire them to live better. There is a growing passion in my heart to continue taking this message of “finding more life by owning less” to more and more people. I’m not entirely sure what that looks like down the road, but there’s a 100% chance leadership qualities will be required.
26. Increases Exposure – Reading opens our heart to new ideas, new cultures, and new worldviews. Good art always does.

27. Increases Reading Speed – Just like any skill in life, we improve with practice. While not a slow reader, I have never considered myself particularly fast either. No doubt, reading 52 books in 52 weeks will be a stretch for me. It will require my attention and practice and will likely increase my skill and pace in reading – at times, by necessity.
28. Setting a Good Example for Your Kids and Other Children – My kids are young (elementary school) and still learning to read. I want them to embrace the practice with joy. I want them to become lifelong readers. And I want them to recognize their father as one who does the same.

29. Dream Big – While I have enjoyed reading all genres of books, I have always found special joy in biographies. Reading the stories of those who sacrificed much, inspires me to do the same. Reading the stories of those who loved unselfishly, inspires me to do the same. And reading the stories of those who accomplished much, inspires me to dream big and do the same.

30. Improves Your Self-Discipline – Reading is not a simple task as everyone would like to think, at least to those who have been reading since at a very young age. Time, concentration and even motivational factors to read could dampen your efforts in reading as much as you could. Do not give up and fight your way through – find the time, hunt for the proper book and set yourself a very comfortable setting to start reading.

31. Be More Creative – New thoughts always stretch our minds to rediscover life in new ways. We begin to see the world differently. And we find new creative solutions because of it.

32. Idea Prioritization – One thing’s for sure, there are a lot of different approaches to life and the problems we face. Reading books provides opportunity to better discern what has worked in the past and what has not.

33. Increases Productivity With Your Time – If you’ve nothing to do while waiting for something to happen as you follow your schedule, you better read a book. While waiting for time, you may just read something good from a book. While waiting for the traffic to move, or while going to and fro your destination, you may also read a few pages of a book (it’s a different matter altogether if you’re the one driving – you need to listen then to an audio book, or books in a different format). Or read a book to someone who’s driving and those willing and ready to listen, if that works for you.

34. Training and Learning Rolled Into One – I remember a question fielded out by a teacher of mine in graduate school, who’s an expert corporate trainer, who asked the class if books can actually train people. He was in a manner of speaking, sounding out his doubts on the use of books in training. I said otherwise, and explained myself. Well, he was not convinced by my ideas (basically, books give out ideas that you apply in your everyday life situations), and I thought he must have taken it against me. But still, I still stick to my position on books being both a great training and learning tool. You apply what you read from books in life, and you revise, if you made mistakes. You, thus, learn in the process – books then facilitate training and learning.
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Chai!

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