Contents A) BENEFITS OF READING IN GENERAL B) BENEFITS OF READING FICTION C) BENEFITS OF READING NONFICTION D) AND WHAT ABOUT A MIXTURE OF BOTH FICTION AND NONFICTION ... A) BENEFITS OF READING IN GENERAL: 1. Cognitive Mental Stimulation And Brain Exercising Reading sharpens your mind through stimulation of the brain. By causing you to focus intensely on the words, your brain takes in a significant amount of information, which can improve both your critical thinking and analyzation skills as well. 2. Vocabulary And Knowledge Expansion 3. Lower Levels Of Stress And Tension Relief The very act of reading and focusing on the written word can help relieve your mind of anxiety and the pressures of the day. By pulling your mind away from the stress at hand, you can relax and let the stress melt away. 4. Helps With Depression And Dysthymia Reading, especially self-help books, can help ward off depressive occurrences. Just like with lowering your stress levels, it stimulates the part of the brain that deals with depression as well. Self-help books, full of information about how to better yourself and your state of mind, can help ease depression. Reading books can be extremely beneficial for someone who might suffer from depressive tendencies but not enough to need medication. 5. Memory Improvement And Better Focus Simple comprehension improves your memory function. Remember the tests in elementary school where you were tested to see how much you retained while reading those short stories. Well, the comprehension as an adult works the same way. While reading, your brain is constantly retaining pieces of information about the story. Because the part of the brain that controls memory is stimulated, it acts like exercise for this part of the brain, resulting in improved memory. 6. Strengthens Your Writing Abilities Writers are often big readers as well because they seek the fulfilment of reading. By concentrating on the way novels and other books are set up and written, you can mimic these styles, thus improving your writing skills considerably. Studying the writing of others is a great tool, especially if you enjoy writing. Even best-selling authors use this tool for studying writing styles and themes. 7. Enhances Your Imagination And Empathy Although the enhancement of your imagination is not one of the more common benefits, reading can significantly increase your imagination. Consider the worlds that you are immersed to and the characters you come across while going through a novel. Because of these worlds and characters, the part of your brain which houses your imagination is stimulated, causing you to imagine what the places and people look like just by picturing the words. 8. Boosts Your Sleep Did you know that reading can also help with your sleep? No, this doesn’t mean that it helps you fall asleep, but it does contribute to improving your overall sleep pattern and restfulness. Reading, since it enables you to relax and de-stress, can help pull you into a deep and peaceful sleep. That sounds like it might be too good to be true, but reading can, in fact, help you sleep. 9. Enjoy Your Entertainment And Peace Perhaps the most well-known benefit of reading is the entertainment value of opening a book with crisp, white pages. Of course, the entertainment is typically what draws avid readers to pick up the next great book. In fact, it has been a solid form of entertainment for many years. Though reading is perfect for entertainment, there’s more to it than just the entertainment factor. Any reader knows that going through a book can be peaceful and induce a relaxing state of mind. By immersing yourself in a good book, you can almost feel any stress or worry melt away. You are both entertained and relaxed just by reading, which is just one of the many great things about books. 10. Helps You To Broaden Your Mind Books allow you to see things from a completely different perspective. Reading about a certain culture, for example, can help you to understand how that culture differs from your own. You might not agree with that culture’s perspective, but at least you’ll look at things from a new angle. Books give you new ideas. You’re constantly learning when you’re reading, and you can start to look at the world from a more balanced perspective. In the absence of other viewpoints, we tend to have a very one-dimensional type of thinking based on our upbringing. We act the way we do because that’s what we learned during our formative years. We look at things from the angle of our own experience. Using this lens, it is easy to assume that our way is the correct way. Books can help us see things in a new light, allowing us to let go of the notions of “correct” or “incorrect” and seeing instead different ways of being human. Reference for the above points: https://www.selfdevelopmentsecrets.com/benefits-importance-reading-books/ 11. Reading is Contagious If you have made it to the bottom of this list, you are now aware of many of the benefits of reading. Did you know that you can help others by reading? Many parents and adults wish that their family read more. Exposing them to your reading habits can be a great way to help encourage them to pick up a book. If you have children in elementary school, consider reading out loud to them even if they can read on their own. Studies show that doing so can help inspire them to become frequent readers. Reference for 11th point: Ref: https://www.cc-pl.org/10-benefits-of-reading ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ B) BENEFITS OF READING FICTION: 2 science-backed ways reading fiction makes you smarter 1. It improves your vocabulary and language skills Books, no matter the type, increase language comprehension, a larger vocabulary and increased brain activity, studies show. “If ‘smarter’ means having a larger vocabulary and more world knowledge... then reading may well make people smarter,” psychologist Keith Stanovich writes in the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. In separate research, brain scans of college students after reading a thriller showed increased activity in the areas of the brain related to language comprehension and sensation. 2. It boosts your emotional intelligence People who read literary fiction show higher levels of empathy and emotional intelligence, according to studies published in the Public Library of Science, the Journal of Research in Personality and The European Journal of Communication Research. And emotional intelligence plays an important role in the workplace. Ref: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/28/how-reading-fiction-makes-you-smarter.html ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ C) BENEFITS OF READING NONFICTION: 4 Reasons Children Need More Non-Fiction Books 1. Prepares students for later grades The bulk of books read in the higher grades are informational texts that focus on a particular subject. The earlier students are introduced to this writing style and tone, the easier they’ll transition to higher grades. 2. Aids second language learners With realistic pictures and locally contextualized content, students learning to read in a second language can connect familiar images with words from the new language. 3. Offers solutions to real-world problems Many students in Tanzania and other countries we work in struggle daily with hunger, child labor, or staying in school. Non-fiction books provide children with information, new perspectives, and life skills that can be used to address challenges in their lives. 4. Teaches children more about the world they live in For nearly two decades, Room to Read has published culturally-relevant books that specifically include characters, settings, and lifestyle details children see regularly. But non-fiction books allow children to further expand their horizons beyond the familiar. Ref: https://www.roomtoread.org/the-latest/5-reasons-children-need-more-non-fiction-books/ ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ D) AND WHAT ABOUT A MIXTURE OF BOTH FICTION AND NONFICTION: As its famously quoted 'Reality is stranger than fiction'. Fiction is primarily about how one feels about things, but nonfictions prefer to focus on how the world actually works. Fiction is all about empathy and emotional meaning, purpose and values. Nonfictions prefer to teach you about the infinitely complex nature of reality. History tells us more about human nature than psychology. The Past is Prologue. Along with history I love reading biographies, memoirs, argumentative essays, investigative journalism reports etc. I find them more compelling and interesting. In my early stages of reading I loved fiction, however now I feel Wings of Fire by Abdul Kalam is more appealing and teaches me the true essence of hardwork and self belief than Harry Potter. After reading its an amazing feeling to know that such a person actually existed and faced such situations. There are innumerable real people who have left me in awe than any fictional character. Fictional stories based on real events are a perfect amalgam of both. for eg. 1. The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh is a story based on the background of India’s and Bangladesh’s (formerly east Pakistan) partition. 2. The Boy with the stripped Pyjama by John Boyne is about a kids innocent understanding and friendship with a jew in the background of Hitler’s anti semitism. 3. All Dan Brown books are more insightful about history and symbolism than all history text books ever combined. 4. The Kite Runner and Thousand splendid suns by Khaleed Hosseini talks about the situations in Afganistan with well etched characters like Hassan and Mariam respectively. It shows the humane and alluring scenic beauty behind the bloodthirsty country. Ref 1: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-benefits-of-reading-non-fiction Ref 2: https://www.quora.com/profile/Sanchita-Lohot - - - - - 1. Fiction & Non-Fiction both are two eyes for a reader. He will miss something if he drops one and stick to the other one permanently. 2. Fiction helps you develop imagination and Non-Fiction helps you acquire lessons from successful people in the form of biographies. 3. Too much Fiction will make you feel bored and dreaming 4. Too much Non-Fiction may feel like rubbing of the personal opinions of an author upon you. So both should be balanced. Ref: https://medium.com/aryas-books/fiction-vs-non-fiction-a-handful-guide-for-better-reading-7ea841549f1f ~ * ~ * ~ * ~Reference for this image: https://www.selfdevelopmentsecrets.com/benefits-importance-reading-books/
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