The man who doesn’t read, has no advantage over the man who can’t read

•  Ernest Hemingway

Reading is an essential activity that improves our lives in plenty of ways. It broadens our knowledge and awareness of the world, exposes us to new perspectives and cultures, improves our communication skills, stimulates our imagination and creativity, and helps us develop critical thinking and analytical abilities. Reading additionally assists us stay up to date on current happenings and trends, keeps our minds sharp and interested, enhances our vocabulary and language skills, and provides a way to unwind and escape. Without enough reading, we miss out on the ability to broaden our views, broaden our perspectives, and obtain a greater awareness of the world around us, which limits our personal growth and development.

There could be a number of reasons why people aren’t reading as much as they used to. The growing ubiquity of digital gadgets and other entertainment mediums like gaming, social media, and streaming services can cause distractions from reading. The ease with which digital information may be accessed may also cause people to favour condensed, scannable content over longer, more in-depth reading pieces. Furthermore, people with hectic schedules could put other pursuits ahead of reading.
Any book lover can tell us: diving into a great novel is an immersive experience that can make our brain come alive with imagery and emotions and even turn on our senses. It sounds romantic, but there’s real, hard evidence that supports these things happening to our brain when we  read books. In reading, we can actually physically change our brain structure, become more empathetic, and even trick our brains into thinking we’ve experienced what we’ve only read in novels. Let’s dig into some of the key advantages an avid reader enjoys over their counterparts.

We make photos in our minds, even without being prompted:

Reading books and other materials with vivid imagery is not only fun, it also allows us to create worlds in our own minds. Researchers have found that visual imagery is simply automatic. Participants were able to identify photos of objects faster if they’d just read a sentence that described the object visually, suggesting that when we read a sentence, we automatically bring up pictures of objects in our minds.

Spoken word can put our brain to work:

Critics are quick to dismiss audiobooks as a sub-par reading experience, but research has shown that the act of listening to a story can light up our brain. When we’re told a story, not only are language processing parts of our brain activated, experiential parts of our brain come alive, too. And while we may think that this is limited only to audiobooks or reading, experts insist that our brains are exposed to narratives all day long.

Reading about experiences is almost the same as living it:

When we read, the brain does not make a real distinction between reading about an experience and actually living it. Whether reading or experiencing it, the same neurological regions are stimulated. Novels are able to enter into our thoughts and feelings. While we can certainly hop into a VR game at the mall and have a great time, it seems that reading is the original virtual reality experience, at least for our brain.

Story structure encourages our brains to think in sequence, expanding our attention spans:

Stories have a beginning, middle, and end, and that’s a good thing for our brain. With this structure, our brains are encouraged to think in sequence, linking cause and effect. The more we  read, the more our brain is able to adapt to this line of thinking. Neuroscientists encourage parents to take this knowledge and use it for children, reading to kids as much as possible. In doing so,

Deep reading makes us more empathetic:

It feels great to lose ourselves in a book, and doing so can even physically change our brain. As we let go of the emotional and mental chatter found in the real world, we enjoy deep reading that allows us to feel what the characters in a story feel. And this in turn makes us more empathetic to people in real life, becoming more aware and alert to the lives of others.

In summary, not reading enough prevents us from having the opportunity to grow intellectually, acquire critical thinking abilities, widen our understanding and viewpoints, and effectively interact with the world around us. We also lose out on the opportunity to properly express and explain our ideas and views, both orally and in written. Reading is also a key to success in both the personal and professional spheres. We acquire the knowledge and abilities required for both academic success and job advancement through reading.

Surajit Das

Head of BBA Department, Assistant Professor

Dinabandhu Andrews Institute of Technology and Management