Why Read Books?
April 27, 2020
When I was a kid, my mom would take me to the library once a week, usually after soccer practice or early on a Saturday morning. If you asked the 10-year-old me, I always had a love/hate relationship with the library and my trip there always depended on my mood. What kind of kid wants to go to the library after soccer practice when he’s sweaty and hungry or go at the crack of dawn on a Saturday? I usually couldn’t find enough books that I was thrilled and excited to read, but if I did, I didn’t always have time to finish all of them. As I got older, I began to read less and less. I slowly grew to dislike reading in its entirety because of all the time I had to spend reading when I was younger. But over the last few months, I have started to pick up books again, and it has been very exciting to become obsessed once again with reading.
I wish I had stuck with reading and figured out a way for it to fit into my life how I would’ve expected. I think there was a lot of growing opportunities I missed out on from dismissing reading books. So, now you ask, why is it so valuable to read books?
To start, books are a great source of entertainment. We all know those people who watch a movie that was recreated from a book and says, “the book was WAYYY better.” Well, turns out they were actually right. The Pew Research Center published an article about this and cited a study which consisted of 800 books and their movie adaptations and the ratings for each on Goodreads and IMDB. In the study, they found that in 74% of these book/movie adaptations that the book rated better by at least a whole point. In 22.1%, the book and movies were similarly rated, and in only 4% of the cases, the movie was rated better than the book. There could be many reasons for this, but one of the biggest reasons is the creative space a book gives compared to a movie. Movies are usually confined to a 2-hour time period. Meanwhile, a book can contain hundreds of pages narrating the story the exact way the author intended, but a movie has to try and take this exact fit and translate and condense the book to fit into the time and visual effects of a movie. Also, people can read a book and let their imagination create the scenes in their head. This makes it difficult for filmmakers as they are tasked with taking everyone’s imagination and trying to create the perfect scene to satisfy a million different people. so overall, books are proven to be better than the movie adaptations.
The other reason everyone should try and read books is the physical and mental benefits. Reading helps keep a person growing even when they don’t realize it. The first way reading helps is through mental stimulation. Reading is like mental exercising for the brain. It engages cognitive skills and development of the brain through very little actual work done on our end. Reading books has also been linked to helping reduce depression, anxiety, and stress. It lets people engage in a great story and give their mind a break from the stresses of the world around them. There are also plenty of academic benefits to trying to read some of a book every day, and the best part is that it doesn’t require us studying a bunch or spending a lot of boring time looking at only a textbook. Reading books can increase one’s vocabulary and improve one’s writing skills. As most of you know, both of these would be extremely beneficial to any college student. This one also just makes logical sense – the more you are exposing yourself to new vocabulary and writing styles, the more you will be able to use this new vocab and these new writing styles. The best part of reading books is that there are plenty of different mental, physical, and academic benefits, and they don’t require us to do much more than just enjoy a good book.
If it’s been awhile since you last read a book, and you don’t know where to begin. I would suggest first going to friends and asking them for recommendations. Just like music and movies, everyone will have their own preferences, and I have my own picky preferences. But if you are pretty open-minded, I would recommend The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. This is one of my all-time favorite books. It takes a look at how habits are at the core of everything we do and how habits play a part in our personal life, business, and society as a whole. I have read this book multiple times, and I think that anyone could benefit from reading it. No matter what book you choose to pick up next, I hope you get out there and try reading something you’ll enjoy!
Sources
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-reading-books
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/26/who-doesnt-read-books-in-america/
Written by: Andrew Reynolds
Andrew is a Senior Project Management Major, and enjoys writing for the blog because of the opportunity it gives him to grow as a writer and to challenge himself to see current topics and discussions from a view point he may not have otherwise thought about.