Importance of Reading Essay Example

Reading is way more important than most people think it is, even if it is non-educational you can still learn plenty of things. I have always been an avid reader since I was in middle school, and that love has only grown the older I get. Lately, it has been the thing I'm most passionate about. It can reduce stress, improve your mental health, and help you live longer. Reading is like an escape for many, including myself. Reading also can help educate, it has many benefits that people often don't think about. Aside from improving mental health and relieving stress, reading is also educational, even when reading fiction, fantasy, romance, etc. It helps improve literacy when reading you're constantly learning new words or phrases that you may have not used before. 

I think if people just pick up a single book, it could change their lives. Many people look at reading any sort of book as a chore, they look for entertainment in things like tv, phones, video games, and so on. In reality, these things don't have near the amount of benefits reading does, and reading can be just as, or even more enjoyable if you look at it the right way. While reading, as long as you can use your imagination, you can picture what is happening almost like it is a show while you're still getting all of the same benefits of reading a book. If you can just pick up a book while educating yourself, living longer, reducing stress, strengthening your mind, and much more, why wouldn't you do it? 

What are the benefits of reading you ask? There are many. For starters, reading is a source of entertainment outside of sitting in front of a tv all day. Reading helps exercise the brain so while you're getting this free entertainment, you're also learning every second. Secondly, reading can reduce stress. Since reading is a source of entertainment, it also is a distraction and can be an escape from anything going on in your life. On the Healthline website, they go into further detail about these benefits. Such as them talking about how reading strengthens your brain, they said, “In one study conducted in 2013, researchers used functional MRI scans to measure the effect of reading a novel on the brain. Study participants read the novel “Pompeii” over a period of 9 days. As tension built in the story, more and more areas of the brain lit up with activity” (Benefits of Reading Books: How It Can Positively Affect Your Life, Par 14). Along with strengthening the brain, it strengthens your vocabulary as well. People who read are constantly learning new words and are said to have a larger vocabulary younger. Reading can even help you live longer, as stated in the Healthline, “A long-term health and retirement study followed a cohort of 3,635 adult participants for a period of 12 years, finding that those who read books survived around 2 years longer than those who either didn’t read or who read magazines and other forms of media” (Benefits of Reading Books: How It Can Positively Affect Your Life, Par 69). If you could possibly lengthen your life, just by picking up and reading a book, wouldn't you want to?

Is reading fiction a waste of time? Well that is precisely what Subodh Sharma gets into in her writing, “Is Reading Fiction A Waste Of Time? Here’s What Research Suggests”. Older generations or even teens today sometimes look at fiction reading as a waste of time, something non-beneficial and doing no good, but is it really a waste? When you have the benefits listed out right in front of you, I don't see how you could possibly think so. You can learn just as much when you pick up a fiction book as you can when you pick up a non-fiction book, maybe you can even learn things you wouldn't learn from just a nonfiction book. Nonfiction can make you think critically, but fiction may even be more so. In fiction books, to really connect with them, you have to consider symbolism and the meaning of certain things within the book, involving a deeper level of thinking than in nonfiction most of the time. These are just a couple of the reasons why reading is not a waste of time, and Subodh Sharma agrees with the fact that reading fiction is not a waste of time, by saying, “Reading fiction is not a waste of time. It’s true that we learn things differently from fiction than that from non-fiction books. But, nevertheless, there are many great life lessons that one can learn from reading fiction alone” (Is Reading Fiction A Waste Of Time, Par 4). 

Why should reading, even fiction non-educational books, be encouraged? Many people automatically assume that you get no benefits from reading unless you're reading something that is non-fiction, which is entirely untrue. In the article, “These Benefits of Reading Fiction Will Surely Surprise You” by Elif Notes, they give 10 reasons why reading fiction is beneficial. Aside from the reasons I stated before, reading fiction can benefit in other ways. For starters, reading fiction can help benefit our imagination or creativity within us. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” ―Albert Einstein. Reading expands your brain, giving you more scenarios and ideas to think about. When you're reading these scenes that are being explained in the books you're reading, it helps strengthen your mind and improve the ability to visualize the words or scenario, which improves your imagination, making it easier to visualize anything in your mind. They also state in the article that reading fiction can improve your social skills, “Those who are fond of reading fiction tend to have stronger social skills than nonfiction readers. “Reading fiction improves focus and concentration, making people better at conversations and conflict resolution” (These Benefits of Reading Fiction Will Surely Surprise You, Section 5). 

Even besides all the health, mental, or social benefits, think about why people may read fiction, or even why people just read in general. There is an endless possibility of reasons. Some simply read for the sole fact that it brings them a joy to read. In a newspaper article called, “Reading is good for the soul”, Janet Carson, a 60-year-old woman, claims that a good book is a treasure and that a lot of positivity comes along with reading. Carson talks about reading as if it is her one true love, something she can come home to and eagerly waits to do, something that invited strong emotions when going through a story, or something that you and your friends can talk about that brings joy to you all. I think in the end, the list of benefits could go on and on, even could be neverending, but I think it is also important to sit back and think about how reading affects individuals personally. If a reader feels extremely passionate, connected, or just emotionally attached to reading fiction or any book, shouldn't that be reason enough to encourage the reading of fiction, or to encourage reading in general? 

Personally, I fell in love with reading at a young age and have held on to that love since I was in middle school. I have probably read hundreds of books since then, but, a book that has stuck with me and filled me with more emotions than I thought possible was “Until Friday Night” By Abbi Glines. This is about Maggie, a girl who witnessed her own father murder her mother and has not spoken a word since. Maggie then moves in with her aunt, moving to a new school where she meets Wes, Wes is a cocky football player who is fighting his own battles on the inside, battling the grief that comes with watching his father slowly die of cancer. Wes’s pain becomes more and more until he decides to confide in Maggie thinking she won't tell anyone or even respond until she does and reveals her pain and they form a bond and begin to rely on each other to ease the pain. This book has so much heart, hurt, and every emotion in between in it. This book is so important to me because it made me truly realize how effective books can be, even when they’re fiction. It truly changed the way I look at books. In real life, unless you are first-hand experiencing something, you don't often think about what others are going through, but when reading fiction you experience many different things through the characters, in this book's case, loss, grief, pain, and even love. When reading stories like this, it is easier to better understand others and their lives, and what they go through. This book made me empathize with the characters and even feel the hurt that they were feeling, it felt like I was in Wes and Maggie’s world, seeing and feeling everything they went through, feeling Wes’s loss of his father, it was like I was grieving along with him. This is the first book that truly tugged at my heartstrings and made me cry while reading. 

Next time you pick up a fiction book and start to feel book shamed, or even embarrassed about what you're reading because some may see it as less important than picking up a history book and actually “learning something”, think back to this. If you need to feel justified in what you are reading, it can help to know all the benefits that come along with picking up a fiction book, but, apart from all of the benefits listed above, if reading fiction is a way you find to express who you are, or is even just something you find love and enjoyment in doing, then do it! Shaming comes along with anything you do in society, from the clothes you wear down to the books you decide to read, so whether it's reading a fiction book or not, most importantly, do what makes you happy.