And if you are reading this blog, you are on your way! But let’s dig a little deeper. Reading a minimum of 20 pages a day is a good goal for a beginner. But I’m not talking about reading texts, or those annoying little articles that pop into your social media feeds. I’m talking about settling in with a REAL book. If you need to work your way up to a traditional hard-bound paper book, then set a goal and start working towards it. In the mean time start building a regular habit.
While the initial benefit is entertainment, the real benefits are much deeper. When you read, you have an opportunity to learn new things. It keeps the brain active and keeps us from getting “stale”. When we improve our knowledge base by reading, we make better decisions moving forward, as the experience we read about imprints on our brains, just as if we had experienced it ourselves. Our vocabulary and spelling naturally improve, as well as we are exposed to new words that we learn to pronounce and understand their meaning.
Reading provides topics of interest we can share with others. We gain empathy, both with the characters in the story, then with people who have had similar experiences: perhaps a whole new perception and understanding of what they have been through. And believe it or not, reading improves our writing skills. As we journal or send written communications to others, phrases or words we have picked up from reading find their way into our future communications.
So grab a book off the shelf that you’ve had for a while, and dust it off. Find a nice, quiet place to sit undistracted for 15 to 30 minutes, and get back into reading. You will be surprised in the difference it makes in your life.
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