When most people think of reading, boring is a common word that comes to mind. While in some cases that could be true, most times it isn’t. Reading is often stereotyped with people who are introverted and quiet, people who like the “boring” stuff. In reality, readers are all different kinds of people. Reading can be one of the most entertaining things to do, and the amount of benefits it gives you is actually amazing. Not only do you learn specific things that you read about, but reading also helps with your mental health, comprehension, attention span, and expanding your vocabulary. While reading may seem useless, it can be one of the most beneficial things you can do to improve your own brain.
When you read, your brain is trained to pick up bits of information and comprehend what you are reading. The more you read, the better your comprehension gets. It’s important to have a good comprehension because without it you won’t be able to understand the more complex things that you read, meaning your level of understanding is not as good as it can be. In recent years, the average attention span for most people has gone down, especially among teens. This is because of the increase of social media use. Reading builds your attention span; it makes it stronger. With a strong attention span, you won’t get distracted easily. You will be able to stay focused for longer periods of time, rather than doing something quickly with little effort in it.
When you are reading and you come across a word that you don’t know, your first instinct might be to look it up, or you might assume what it means based on the context where it’s given. Either way, that’s expanding your vocabulary. Even if you don’t go out of your way to look up a word definition, you at least have a base line of its meaning. Reading gives you a real life example of a word’s context. Reading lover Kiana Hajaligol, Heritage freshman, enjoys reading “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid”. She thinks that reading has helped her vocabulary grow to use “bigger and better words”.
Though a common way of improving your mental health though reading is to read a self-help book, you are not limited to that. Reading alone can reduce stress by a lot. Oftentimes readers find a sense of security and confidence just by reading one of their favorite books or something that they might relate to. Reading clears your brain, and it entertains while it builds knowledge. Madeline Lebert, Heritage freshman, says, “My favorite book is The Summer of Broken Rules by K. L. Walther”. She talks about how reading has helped her explaining, “Reading helps me get a better understanding of different perspectives and allows me to expand my imagination”. Reading also makes your empathy stronger because most times when you read, especially fiction, you are reading from another person’s perspective; you understand their emotions. It’s almost like you live through them yourself. All in all, there are many ways that reading is beneficial.
Moreover, note that there are multiple types of books out there such as fantasy, fiction, mystery, realistic fiction, historical fiction, non fiction, nature, and cookbooks. When you read, it’s all about finding what you’re interested in because most times there is almost always a book about it. Non-fiction books are a good example on how you can learn things from books, but most times you can gain just as much knowledge from a fiction book. While some things might be unrealistic or not true, lots of fiction books are based on real things or can be related to things that really happened in life. There are many times where authors write stories based on real things. These events are often cloaked in a metaphor about a fictional world. When you read, it’s good to keep a balance of fiction books and non-fiction books, that way you can have fun while reading about dragons and witches, but you can also gain lots of valuable knowledge. If you don’t think you would be able to find a non-fiction book you might be interested in, then relate it to whatever subjects or themes found in the fiction books you like to read. For example, let’s say you are really interested in reading about witches. You can relate that to something non-fiction; maybe pick up something about the Salem witch trials, or the history of witches and how the idea of them evolved. Additionally, let’s say you like to read about dragons; maybe you try reading a non-fiction book about lizards or bearded dragons. There will always be options.
Reading is both entertaining and educational. It’s important to read more books,especially in a time where almost everything and everyone is online. Reading is a good hobby. There are so many ways that it can help you, whether you read non-fiction, fantasy, mystery, or even cookbooks, so the next time you are bored and looking for something to do, pick up a good book and read!
