Albert Einstein said, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales”. Reading helps to develop visualization skills. Research shows that our brain cannot distinguish between reading an experience and going through it actually. Reading fictional books can take you to the world of the novel and connect you with the characters. Similar is the case with non-fiction books. When you read biographies or books based on real-life stories of people you get motivated to overcome the challenges in your life. You find your heroes in these books. Reading acts like an exercise for our brain. It keeps the brain stimulated and to keep away diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia it is very important to keep our brain active.
Major advantages of reading:
- Source of Knowledge: you get to know everything about any topic from reading books. Books are reliable sources because a book has to go through a series of tests before publishing. It is checked by an editor, publisher, or literary expert and then only it goes for publishing.
- Best friend: “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.” – Descartes. If you feel lonely or sad, just pick up a book and you get charged up. Books take us to different places and expose us to novel ideas.
- Best pastime: These days we have easy access to mobile phones, and we waste our time watching reels on Instagram, instead of mobile if we carry books with us, we can spend our time gaining knowledge and get away with our mobile addiction also.
- Improves language command: You get a better command of language when you read books. Whether it is English or any other language, reading helps to improve your vocabulary and sentence formation.
- Improves confidence– Avid readers don’t face difficulty while talking to any new person. Reading can help you to expand your social circle. You can talk about various books, articles or discuss about current affairs that you read in the newspapers.
- Improves concentration: Reading requires attention and hence if you read regularly, it boosts your grasping power. Initially, you find it difficult to read a few pages but gradually you develop a habit of reading 20 to 50 pages easily.
- Stress-free life: British writer Jeanette Winterson has said, “Books and doors are the same things. You open them, and you go through into another world.” With the characters written in the book, you experience a different life. Reading takes away your stress and entertains you.
- Improves sleep: These days sleeping while scrolling your phone often leads to insomnia. But if you grab a book while going to bed and read a few pages you will shortly feel sleepy and get a peaceful sleep. Best way to put your child to sleep is by reading bed-time stories.
- Source of inspiration: By reading biographies of great personalities, we get inspired to achieve our goals in life.
- Improves your writing skills: American novelist and short story writer, Annie Proulx has quoted, “Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write”. If you are a writer, you can make your craft better by reading. You get inspired by various ideas from the books or articles you read.
Successful leaders are avid readers:
If you search through the pages of history, you will find that most of the successful leaders were avid readers. They are known to read one book in a day. Their philosophy showcases the extensive knowledge they have absorbed from different books.
American printer and publisher, author, inventor and scientist, and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin has quoted, “From a child, I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books.” He used to borrow the book from anyone and would learn to write from the books he read. He had only two years of formal schooling. Franklin became a very good writer with his voracious reading habit.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of America is another best example of self-education. Many other presidents of America belonged to rich, educated families but Lincoln was an exception. He never got full-time schooling, but he would read whatever he could get. He would borrow books from his neighbors and would walk miles to find a book. He would write out his favorite quotes and passages from the books into a copybook. He would memorize the long poems and quotes, and this helped him later in his life. He would impress people he met as he could easily recite any long poem at will anytime. He knew the entire Bible by heart, and he would always explain things and his arguments with the right story or correlation.
Lincoln would read every book in the country he could find within a radius of fifty miles. Once he got to know that a farmer, Mr. Crawford who lived in his neighborhood had a book named, “Life of Washington”. He walked long miles to meet the farmer and borrowed the book from him. He finished reading a good number of pages while going back home. When he reached home, it got dark, but he continued reading the book by sitting next to the chimney until bedtime. He could not resist reading, so he took it to the loft and continued reading for the next hour until the candle burned out completely. He kept the book, in a crevice between logs near the window.
But unfortunately, it was a stormy night and rainwater entered the window and the book got completely wet. The next morning Lincoln dried the book. Although the pages were fine the book was damaged. He took the book after completing it to Crawford and told Crawford about the damage. As he did not have the money to pay for the damage done, the farmer asked Lincoln to work on his farm for three days to repay the book. He allowed him to keep the damaged book. Lincoln happily reread the book and he later shared that the book made George Washington his role model. This book gave him a vision of thinking big and improving the lives of people.
Famous scientist, inventor, and engineer, Nikola Tesla said, “Of all things, I liked books best.” As a student, Tesla used to read a lot and he used to set goals to finish reading all the books in his university library, and to accomplish it he used to sleep only few hours a day.
Swami Vivekananda was also a voracious reader. He had a very high level of concentration and extraordinary reading speed. He could read and even memorize large volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica in just one reading. It is said that he would just glance at a page of a book and understand everything written on that page. He used to read mostly books of English and Bangla literature, history, and spiritualism. There is one story about his reading skill during his student days when he stayed in Meerut. Narendranath (Swamiji) through Swami Abhedananda, would borrow the book from a local library and would finish reading one book every day and return it the same day. The librarian thought he was borrowing the book only to impress others and not for reading. One day he asked Swami Abhedananda if Narendranath was actually reading the book or just faking. When Narendranath heard this, he went to the librarian and politely said that he read all the books and he could ask any question from the borrowed books if he had a doubt. The librarian asked him questions from the books and Narendranath answered them correctly. The librarian was surprised by his concentration and fast reading ability.
Jim Rohn, the famous author, and motivator has quoted, “Successful people have libraries. The rest have big screen TVs.” Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors also follows a reading habit. He reads almost 500 pages daily. He quotes, “I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So, I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.” Bill Gates who is regarded as one of the wealthiest persons in the world reads about 50 books per year. he says, “Whether I’m at the office, at home, or on the road, I always have a stack of books I’m looking forward to reading.” Sudha Murthy, famous author, philanthropist, chairperson of Infosys Foundation, and a Padma Shri awardee is an avid reader since her childhood and till today she reads extensively every day, at least 150 pages every single day. She is so addicted to reading that if she doesn’t find any book to read, she may read the newspaper 3 times. She is also a passionate writer and has published books in English, Kannada and Marathi language.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed in an interview that he was raised by books and then parents. When he was just 9, he read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. At such a young age, he would read up to 10 hours a day. He would read all types of science fiction novels, comics, and nonfiction books. “The Lord of the Rings,” “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series were his favorites. Former US President Barrack Obama has said, “Reading is important. If you know how to read, then the whole world opens to you”.
How to develop reading habits:
Set aside fixed time for reading. It can be either in the morning or during bedtime. You should not have disturbances around. Take out at least 30 minutes from your busy schedule to read a book or newspaper magazine or article of your choice. If you are picking up a book to read and you are a novice in reading, then start with your favorite genre. It is good to start with fiction novels as they build up interest in reading. Eventually, you can go for self-help books. Do not rush. Start with a book with 100 to 150 pages. If you read 20 to 30 pages daily, you can easily finish the book in 3 to 4 days. Gradually increase the number of pages. Always keep a bookmark. This will save your time as you don’t have to struggle for the page you read last time. Initially, it may happen that as soon as you pick up the book you get bored. So, pick up the books wisely. The story of the book should be so captivating that it should keep you engrossed. Always search for book recommendations before selecting any book to save time. Take out notes, quotes, or important points from the book and note them down in a diary. You can also write your thoughts or reviews about the book you read and share them on different sites. This will help you to remember the details of the book and it will help you improve your writing skills as well.
So, this was my article on the benefits of reading. Hope you enjoyed reading it.
References
Swami Vivekananda’s Reading Speed And Memory Power – VivekaVani