5 Reasons to Get Reading

Have you read a book recently? Research by the Pew Research Centre found that one quarter of people don’t read a single book over the course of a year whilst the average person spends only 17 minutes a day reading books compared to 5.4 hours on their phone. 

Reading has been on the decline for some time as Gallup surveys have shown us with the proportion of men who never read a book in any given year tripled between 1978 and 2014. 

We live in a chronically distracted world where our attention is drawn in many directions as we multi-task our way through the day. We read on our devices throughout the and have become experts at scanning and skimming. Over time this approach has had a knock-on impact on the way we read books taking the depth and pleasure from the experience of reading itself. 

As Johann Hari says in his book, Stolen Focus, “we are losing our cognitive patience and the stamina and ability to deal with cognitively challenging texts”. He says that in his research for the book he spoke to Harvard Professors who struggled to get their students to read short books and increasingly had to provide them with YouTube clips and podcasts to watch instead. 

Maybe our relationship with books doesn’t come as a surprise to you, but what are we missing out on when our reading habits are more likely to centre around tweets, Facebook updates or emails?

Books are an amazing way to learn

The amount of research that goes into writing a good book is incredible. Most books take years to research and write. So for your investment of a matter of hours, you will receive an incredible return on your investment. Pick topics that fascinate you or you are trying to learn about and you will receive a huge boost in knowledge as well as an extension in your vocabulary. 

Reading books improves our concentration and focus

When you read a book, all your attention is focused on what you are reading whether it is fact or fiction. Doing this allows you to fully immerse yourself in the book and absorb every little detail. With this level of focus we are more likely to lose our sense of self and time and enter into flow, our optimum state where we feel fantastic. And the even better news is, focus breeds focus. So, the more you read books, the more focused you are in other aspects of your life. 

Reading reduces stress

When you are fully absorbed in a book, it’s like entering into another world where all your challenges and worries melt away. This enables your nervous system to feel safe and begin to relax massively impacting our physiology. Not only this, you feel the benefits in the moment as stress chemicals flood out of your system and our replaced by feel good chemicals. 

Books exercise the brain

Studies have shown that staying mentally stimulated can slow the progress, or even prevent, Alzheimer’s and Dementia. The brain is like all of our other muscles and requires exercise to keep it strong and healthy. Reading books is a great way to provide the cognitive stimulation we need to reap the brain benefits now and into the future. 

Reading improves your memory

Reading exposes us to lots of new information that we have to remember for the book to make sense. Maybe it is the theory or process or the name of characters and their backgrounds but all of it helps improve our memory. The brain has an amazing ability to remember these details and each time it creates a memory it does so by forging new brain pathways and strengthening existing ones which not only assists in short-term memory but also helps to stabilise our moods. 

Many well-known intellectual icons like Elon Musk, Warren Buffet and Oprah Winfrey all credit their success to their incredible passion for books, so what are you waiting for?