Books can be anything—time capsules, medicine, coaches, anything that stimulates one’s intellect and imagination. There are very few problems, if any, that books cannot solve.

As such, it is important that we not only read more, but read right too. Whether you stopped reading because adulthood happened or you have never really liked to sit with a book, you stand to gain a lot by igniting in yourself a passion for reading.

Benefits of Reading

1. Reading helps to improve signs of depression. According to Sir Roger Scrutiny, a British philosopher, “Consolation from imaginary things isn’t an imaginary consolation.” People with symptoms of depression tend to feel estranged and isolated from others. This feeling of ostracization can be lessened by reading.

When reading fictional works, one can temporarily escape the physical world, swept into the imaginary landscape of the character arc and plot of the story, and can validate real world concerns that are often reflected through the narratives. Books on nonfiction are more straightforward and can help people develop in other ways. They can also teach you strategies for managing or avoiding depression altogether.

Many countries across the world are taking advantage of this benefit to improve depression in the country. The National Health Service in the United Kingdom has started a program called Reading Well, a service which prescribes books for people.

In the program, medical professionals prescribe books on self-help from a curation of books by other medical experts. The books used are usually geared towards specific conditions, so there’s a book for everyone.

2. Reading broadens vocabulary. When you read more, your vocabulary will improve and expand over time. The longer it continues, the better you become at expressing your emotions and thoughts. Language is a versatile tool and people should use it to find the best possible means of expression.

People with a broader vocabulary tend to have more skillful command of languages, and would doubtlessly capture the admiration and imagination of those around them.

Besides, it’s a known fact that good levels of articulation is considered impressive and opens the way to public offices, leadership roles, and promotions. Experts from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain discovered that having good vocabulary slows down decline in mental health.

Thus, the wider your vocabulary, the lesser your likelihood of succumbing to poor mental health as you age.

3. Reading improves levels of empathy. In terms of being sensitive to pain, studies reveal that people who are interested in works of fiction, especially stories that explore the lives and times of characters tend to have an increased ability to comprehend the emotions and beliefs of others.

According to researchers, such an ability is known as the theory of mind which is an array of skills that are critical in creating, maintaining, and navigating the troubled waters of social relationships.

Although consuming literary fiction in a single session isn’t enough to create the feeling, long-term lovers of fiction have a better, and well-developed theory of mind.

4. Reading improves conversational skills and quality of conversations. Have you ever heard a friend say that they enjoy spending time with you because you never run out of things to say, or that you know how to hold and keep conversations going? It’s likely that you are a good reader.

When you regularly consume books, you are more likely to have lots of subjects to talk about and explore with others. This would make you a better conversationalist. The quality of your conversations will also improve because you are less likely to beat around the bush for what to talk about, and know enough about a subject to keep a conversation going for a longer period of time.

5. Reading improves levels of intelligence. This is, perhaps, the most common benefit of reading. At school, we read to pass exams and tests. When we get new stuff, we read manuals to better understand how to manage and operate our purchase(s). These are just a few examples of how reading improves our intelligence.

A published study in 2014 revealed that people who grow up to be very intelligent showed early signs of strong reading culture. The study was carried out on several sets of identical twins whose cognitive developments were measured and tracked.

When twins were placed in a specific home environment, the telling difference in their performance at nonverbal tests (such as reasoning tests) and verbal tests (such as vocabulary) appeared to be their inclination to reading in the early stages of their lives.

Since reading culture is a skill that is learned over time, the authors of the study arrived at the conclusion that teaching young children to develop a strong reading culture should be prioritized.

6. Reading helps in the prevention of cognitive decline due to aging. According to the National Institute on Aging, regularly trading magazines and books can help to keep the mind active and engaged as one ages.

While studies are yet to prove beyond reasonable doubts that a good reading culture can help combat cognitive conditions such as Alzheimer’s and dementia, some schools of thought believe that aged people who solve math problems and read regularly improve and maintain their cognitive functionality.

What’s more, the earlier a reading culture is inculcated, the better. A study by the Rush University Medical Center in 2013 revealed that people who engage in activities that stimulate the mind all through their lives are less susceptible to developing tau-protein tangles, lesions, and plaques found in the brains of dementia patients.

7. Reading can alter the brain. Even after concluding a book, the brain doesn’t stop experiencing the effects of the action. A study in 2013 revealed that when people consumed works of fiction, especially ones with strong plots and narratives, their brains tended to act differently in the hours, or sometimes, days that ensue.

The left temporal cortex, which is the area of the grain responsible for comprehending language, tends to express increased levels of connectivity in the brain of readers. This change could go on even after hours of discontinued reading.

As a result, it can be deduced that reading helps in training the mind, as well as boosting neural functionality in a similar process to muscle memory.

8. Reading can be contagious. It’s worth knowing that a strong inclination to read is likely to have a positive effect on yourself and others, especially when you have kids. As such, when you are surrounded by avid readers, you are more likely to take to reading yourself.

To take advantage of this benefit, you can regularly gather your kids around and read out loud to them. According to Scholastic, in a new report, reading out loud to children during the early periods of their schooling years can inspire them to read frequently as they grow.

In turn, they are also more likely to pass down the tradition and teach the next generation of kids to be readers too.

9. Reading can serve as an escape for digital addiction. If you are too busy with day-to-day activities to squeeze in some reading time during the day, you can try adjusting your nighttime routine to include snuggling into bed with a book.

Cultivating the culture of consuming physical books before falling asleep is a much better and healthier alternative to going through your phone before bed. Studies reveal that using your smartphone just before bed can make falling asleep much harder to achieve. Also, it can affect the quality of your sleep.

Some experts believe that swapping your phone for books has a more relaxing effect on the mind, and as such, is an ideal activity for bedtime.

10. Reading aids cognitive strength. Researchers have used MRI scans to confirm this suggestion as reading comprises a set of sophisticated networks of signals and circuits in the brain.

As your reading skills evolve, those networks only grow stronger and achieve more complexity. In a 2013 study, experts used functional MRI scans to track the whereabouts effects of reading a book on the brain.

The participants used in the study were asked to study the novel, Pompeii, across a period of nine days. As tension mounted in the story’s plot, the scans revealed that several more areas of the brain were triggered and became active.

The brain scans across the reading period and the days that followed revealed an in brain connectivity, particularly around the somatosensory cortex, which is the region of the brain responsible for physical sensations such as pain and movement.

11. Reading improves levels of concentration and focus. Reading a substantial amount of writing can improve your concentration and focus because the latter is critical for reading to occur. Put simply, without focus, it’s impossible to flow with and follow any piece of text completely.

In fact, reading can be the ultimate antidote to the multitasking culture that plagues society today. When writing an email or texting online, we do several other things on the side like sipping on a cup of coffee, stroking the cat, or watching TV.

Such a habit can cause people to lose focus and productivity is hampered. Truth be told, only a little can he achieved with multitasking. Reading demands focus.

So, taking the time to go through a book for fifteen to twenty minutes every other day can help improve your concentration and, in turn, help you achieve better productivity.

12. Reading makes you knowledgeable. To be a well-rounded person means you can hold a conversation on several different subjects. In turn, to do that, you must be a good reader. Even better, you don’t have to consult any serious book to pick up bits of information that could help you someday.

Make no mistake, being a well-rounded person would not make you the most interesting person on the planet. You’d not be a bore, and would have something to say whenever you get the chance. That beats being left out of conversations because no one rates your knowledge.

Moreover, the more you know about many things, the higher your likelihood of dealing with whatever challenges life tosses at you.

13. Reading lowers stress levels. A study by a body of researchers in 2009 tracked the effects of reading, humor, and yoga on the stress levels of several students, especially those in demanding programs like health sciences or engineering.

The study held in the United States revealed that half an hour of reading was enough to lower feelings of psychological stress, heart rate, and blood pressure quite as effectively as humor and yoga.

The teachers arrived at the conclusion that since the unavailability of time is usually cited as the main reason for stress in students in demanding programs. Thirty minutes of humor, reading for pleasure, or yoga could be added into their schedules without cutting off any valuable time from studies.

14. Reading boosts writing skills. Improvement in writing skills tend to go hand-in-hand with vocabulary improvement. People who like to read, lovers of well-written texts especially, emulate several writing styles. In the end, they adopt good writing styles from being subconsciously influenced by what they read.

Thus, the more you read and the better the quality of the writing, the higher your chances of developing a good handwriting.

15. Reading induces memory improvement. To follow the plot of a book no matter how simple or complex, you have to remember a lot, ranging from character names to defining acts to places to backgrounds to roles in the plot to subplots to themes among others.

Remembering all the key details make for good mental exercise. Besides, without them, it would be impossible to understand what you read. Imagine reading a story and forgetting who the characters are! So, suffice it to say that reading activates and maintains the memorizing ability of the brain.

16. Reading could lead to longevity. According to a long-term study on retirement and health which reached a cohort of several thousand adult participants across a period of twelve years, the population who read books hung on for two years longer than those who didn’t read at all or consumed only magazines and other types of media.

The study further revealed that people who read for more than three and a half hours every week had a twenty-three percent likelihood of outliving people who didn’t read at all.

17. Reading develops your analytical thinking skills. Reading books with crime, thriller, mystery, or horror themes would typically leave audiences with a challenge to save as the ot unfolds—a technique that aids the development of their analytical skills.

So, not only is it enthralling to read a mystery, but it’s just as interesting to try deciphering it yourself. Even if you don’t end up solving the mystery, you would have successfully practiced and improved your analytical and critical thinking.

10 Ways To Be a Better Reader

1. Practice reading regularly. People who spend the bulk of their time reading and consuming more volumes of reading materials tend to have a broader vocabulary and improved sense of understanding. This further develops their capacity to absorb more knowledge.

As with anything else, creating or developing your inclination to read takes time and effort. To develop this skill, you have to consciously take out time daily to read.

Although literacy experts are torn about how much time should be devoted to reading given the disparities across factors such as ability, skill set, age, among others. It’s otherwise important to remember that consistency is key.

So, try reading daily. Go ahead and take as many breaks as you want while reading. Just ensure that the process is an enjoyable experience even while practicing to improve your reading skills.

You can take a book with you as you board the morning train or do some light reading during lunch break or recess. To further improve your chances of reading, surround yourself with reading materials during times of unwinding.

Reading out loud is another good practice. When doing this, alone or with an audience, you will improve your fluency, including your reading and spelling skills. However, if you’re a nervous reader, don’t feel pressured to read out loud, especially with an audience.

The fear of shame, humiliation, or faltering can make an unsure reader hate the experience altogether.

When reading, visualize the plot, be attentive to when places and characters are introduced, and try to envision them. Imagining how the story unfolds could help make it realer to you and easier to remember.

2. Don’t attempt a big leap. It’s okay to start small. Try reading at a level you’re comfortable with. From there, you can attempt more difficult reading materials. Otherwise, if you begin at a level that’s too complex for you, discouragement could set in.

Although, it’s important to challenge yourself every now and then by attempting advanced levels, doing so as a goal is the best way to go. Allowing discouragement to set in while reading can make achieving set goals more difficult in the long run.

Also, it’s normal to skim the first few pages of a book. In fact, you should totally do it. By doing this, you can tell whether or not you understand the author. Without understanding, you may likely hate the book and the experience.

Before you decide on a book with a smaller range of focus, like a work of science or a particular historical treatise, try familiarizing yourself with books that cover more general subjects first.

Finally, when reading, use the five finger rule. Pick a book of your choice and go through the first two to three pages. Put up a finger when you stumble across a word you can neither pronounce nor understand.

If you come across five or more words that fit the bill, the book is probably above your level of reading and understanding. This method is well-known and used by educators across the world, and is not limited to children alone.

3. Be attentive. Be attentive to what you are reading. Focus on the words and absorb them. Don’t go through a book the same way you watch TV: aimlessly, inattentively, and passively.

Reading requires conscious efforts, and you must be willing and able to commit if you want to get anything out of the venture. To learn, the key virtue you need is attention.

To better tune your attention, there are a set of guidelines you can follow to make good use of your trading time. According to experts, it helps to preview a passage before settling down to go through it entirely. Below is a guideline for previewing:

• A preview should last anywhere between thirty to sixty seconds.
• Glance at the main heading of the chapter.
• Look at other headings, subheadings, bold or dark prints, and italics.
• Study any illustration or pictures, graphs or charts briefly.
• Skim through the passage by reading the first and last paragraphs.
• Look at the first sentence of every other paragraph in the passage.

Now shut the book and, using the table below, quiz yourself.

Questions	Answers
What is the author’s purpose for writing that book?
What is the text about?
What is the major focus of the passage? (current one)

4. Diversify your reading rate to the type of writing and difficulty of the book. Poor readers tend to read at a similar slow rate, while better readers blitz through easier materials and slow down for harder ones. It’s worth mentioning that some things aren’t meant to be blitzed through.

For instance, legal materials and difficult texts in general should be perused slowly. Easier materials like newspapers and magazines can be quickly completed. For plays and poetry, which are meant to be performed, reading it out loud is usually better.

Scriptures and other religious writings are intended to be recited and spoken to an audience.

Speed reading through texts like prayer, play, and poetry takes the fun out of the experience, and should be avoided.

5. Create thought groups. According to studies, when reading, our eyes tend to make small pauses across a line. For poor readers, eyestops are even more common and can occur more often regardless of the length of the text.

Not only do eyestops slow down the pace and fluidity of reading, they also hamper comprehension. It is far easier to seduce meanings from a group of words than from single letters or individual words.

As such, it’s best to read books in phrases of three to four words, especially when dealing with prepositional phrases or complete clauses.

6. Avoid talking to yourself when reading. People usually talk to themselves when reading in two manners, namely:
7. Vocalizing, which involves the movement of the lips during reading
8. Subvocalizing, which involves talking to yourself through the voice in your head, while silently reading

These techniques will likely slow down your pace to the point that your speech will become on par with your reading. That is, you will be unable to read faster than you speak.

Comparatively, speech is a slower activity than reading. In most people, the average speaking speed is around 250 words per minute. Reading, on the other hand, should be an activity that involves the brain and eyes. Vocalization links speech and reading.

Think of reading as the process of observing a landscape—panorama of different ideas—instead of the process of studying the rocks beneath your feet.

7. Highlight and cross-link. There are comprehensive texts that use examples to induce understanding. For those kinds of texts, it’s best to cross-link pages for references and try connecting them with the subjects you read of.

Highlighting important texts or marking dog ears can further improve the efficiency of your reading. So, if your book contains tables, diagrams, and charts, go through them thoroughly.

8. Clustering. Avoid reading word by word. Instead, link words into groups by clustering them together. When clustering, you group the three to four words that you can see in a glance. To get better at reading, you must learn to improve your clustering skills.

The better you get at it, the higher your eye span becomes and the better your ability to make sense of word clusters becomes. Eye span is the extent to which the eyes can group words in a single glance.

9. Create a good reading environment. When you associate reading with relaxation and comfort, you improve your chances of continued development of your reading skills. This way, you can turn reading into a treat rather than a chore.

Locate a quiet place when you want to read to avoid disturbances and distractions such as radios, people, or TVs. Ensure that your chosen place is an area you can relax in, and one with proper lighting.

10. Create a family reading culture. Establishing reading as a normal and regular activity in your home for all family members can be a treat. Not only will you sharpen your reading skills, but you’ll also encourage reading culture in members of your family.

FAQ On How To Read Better

Why does one get better at reading the more they read?

Reading is a skill like any other. The more football you play or the more you type on keyboard, the better you get at them. The same goes for reading.

How long should I read in a day?

While you are free to spend as much time (or less) as you like reading, thirty minutes to an hour is often recommended.

Final Thoughts

Reading is an art, a treat—one that improves the standard of life of a person. And as we’ve seen from our discussion, its effect on health and well-being cannot be overlooked. Reading holds far more benefits than the ones covered here. What makes the art even better is that it can be customized to fit any one person.