The International Day of the Book is approaching and it is always worth reviewing the many advantages that reading brings us. Surely many of them sound familiar to you, but others... What is there to celebrate?
Like every year, on April 23rd, the International Day of the Book is celebrated. This date is chosen to commemorate that on the same day of the same month, but in 1616, Garcilaso de la Vega, Shakespeare, and Cervantes died or were buried. So, obviously, 1616 was a fatal year for literature, but we have a beautiful celebration to enjoy in the best way possible: reading.
Classic advantages of reading
We already know, and everyone has heard it ad nauseam, that reading is good for many things. It is good for expanding our general culture, our vocabulary, and our oral and written expression, therefore, reading enriches our social life because we will have more topics of conversation, more interests to share, and we will communicate better with people of all kinds (including by email). In addition, it is good for training our concentration skills, and that will improve our academic results, so we will obtain our university
eTítulo with greater ease. It also improves our imagination, which is atrophied from spending all day watching audiovisual content, and our willpower, by being able to create a reading habit and make room for it in our daily lives. Of course, reading improves our spelling, so not only will we express ourselves better using a wide vocabulary, but we will also be able to write it correctly. Reading improves our learning ability, abstract thinking, and also helps us sleep at night, so it is of great help for people who suffer from insomnia. At this point, we should already be choosing a book if we don't have one started at the moment, but for those who are still not convinced, here are 3 more advantages that may not be so well known:
Improves empathy
Is there a more trendy word than this in recent years? Maybe "resilience", but not many more. Despite empathy being everywhere, the truth is that it is one of the most important human skills for life in society and for individual well-being. Empathy is the ability to put ourselves in the place of other living beings, whether human or not, and that characteristic is, to put it simply and concisely, "good". Everything our species does to improve the world and help others is based on that capacity that we owe to our mirror neurons. Reading puts us in different positions, experiences, and perspectives. We adopt the personality and experiences of the characters, their expectations and longings. It is like a constant simulation of other lives. Here they explain in detail the
relationship between reading and empathy.
Reading prevents Alzheimer's and senile dementia
Undoubtedly, it is the best brain training. Regular reading is elite gymnastics to have a strong and healthy brain for many years, and although the idea of memory loss may seem distant now, we will never want to find ourselves there. In any case, the benefits of reading on memory are also noticeable in the short and medium term, so it not only prevents age-related diseases but also saves us study time and improves our grades.
Extends life
When we read, we live many lives, travel to many places, and meet incredible people. Just that gives us a feeling of having lived more years, but in addition to fantasy and treasured memories, it turns out that in a study published in the
Social Science & Medicine journal in 2016, which studied 3600 adults, a significant correlation was found between daily reading and a longer life expectancy. If you are one of those who have always said "reading is not for me" or "reading bores me", it is because you have not yet found the right book. As this Saturday is the day to celebrate literature, we invite you to give it another chance. Let yourself be advised by people who know your tastes and you will surely find the ideal book for you. Reading is the only thing we can say is addictive but equally good, so take advantage and get hooked.
