What's Up With The World? (M2)

The Beneficial Properties

of

Reading

Books

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Has anyone else ever been asked in that irritating tone of voice, "Why do you read?" In the case of some students here a little less literate than I, it's not even asked with an actual interest in "why I read". No, instead it's a sneer upon their face and that tone of voice like reading is beneath them. It's "Why do you even like reading?" After a time, although it's a question that makes me want to roll my eyes and ask "Why do you even like breathing?" I've actually began to consider my answer to this often-asked question.

Why do I like to read?

Keeping in mind that reading is a glorious experience that, with the proper words and proper person telling it, will "take you to other places of your imagination"; there are plenty of reasons why to keep reading besides the fact that I enjoy it.

Reading a good book boosts your creativity, your imagination. Likewise, your empathy for the characters and for other people becomes greater. It builds your concentration and attention, it encourages you to chase your dreams, to achieve your life goals.

Reading improves your writing skills, your vocabulary, and your analytical thinking. Your mind, your brain, is a muscle with it's own neuro circuit developed just for reading. This comes from the need to focus on language, your vision, and the associative learning that takes place as you read a book with a plotline. By working out your brain, you keep your mind sharp and, essentially, young. In the end, reading protects your brain from Alzheimer's.

When you read a book, you have time to think about what is happening. As the reader, you have the unique ability to press pause and absorb it all in. If you're watching a movie or listening to music, then you generally don't press pause to think about what is happening. For a movie, you press pause to make popcorn or go to the bathroom.

Most of all, what I like about reading, is that you experience the story. As you read you imagine what's happening, the great plot, the complications, the interactions between the characters or between the protagonist and the antagonist, that takes place. Although it might be written from a different POV, a different gender, a different species, a different name; a reader connects to the character that isn't all that possible when you watch a movie. Because there's a difference between experiencing the story and watching it happen with someone else experiencing it.

You want to ask me why I like reading? Why do you like playing video games, or watching tv, or playing around on your iPod? Why do I like reading? Why do you follow boy bands, or play sports, or watch movies?

I like reading because I don't like it. I love it. Reading is as much a part of me as the lungs in my chest and my two left feet. It's there, and there are so many possibilities out there in the world that exist, so why not use it? Why not read?

I like reading because I do.

That's pretty much it.