5 Top Tips For Why Reading Is Important!

1. Reading is an active mental process that improves your concentration and focus:
It makes you use your brain; helping you to reason out things which are unfamiliar to you.

Reading is one of the most enjoyable hobbies a person can have. Although it's saddening to think that the majority of people aren't introduced to the fabulous world of books.

Since you must concentrate in order to read, this requires you to focus and think about what you are reading.

If you want to break the monotony of an uncreative and uninterested life, go and grab an interesting book. Turn the pages to explore new worlds filled with information and ingenuity.

2. Improves your discipline and memory:

Making time to read is something we all feel that we should do, but few of us schedule book reading time every day. But adding book reading to your daily schedule and sticking to it, improves discipline.

Studies show if you don't use your memory, it becomes more and more difficult to remember facts that you have read. Crossword puzzles are an example of a word game that staves off Alzheimer's.

Reading helps to stretch your memory muscles and requires you to remember details, facts and figures, plot lines, themes and characters.

It is really satisfying to look at a shelf of books and say, "I've read every one of those!"

Not only is the knowledge useful, but it is personally very rewarding as well.

3. Builds self-esteem and improves creativity:

The more you read, the more knowledgeable you become and with more knowledge comes more confidence. More confidence builds self-esteem.

Reading about the diversity of life and exposing yourself to new ideas and more information helps to develop the creative side of the brain and filters innovation into your thinking process.

So it's a chain reaction. When you are well read, people will look to you for answers. Then your feelings about yourself only get better. Even more confidence!

Reading about diversity of life and exposing yourself to new ideas and more information helps to develop the creative side of the brain as it imbibes innovation into your thinking process.

4. Reading improves your vocabulary and reduces boredom:

When you are reading books, especially challenging ones, you will probably find yourself exposed to many new words.

Remember when you learnt to read, how you learned to figure out the meaning of one word by reading the context of the other words in the sentence?

You will get the same benefits for building your vocabulary from book reading. So if you are feeling bored, then pick up a book and start reading.

If you're bored anyway, you might as well be reading a good book, right?

5. Gives you a glimpse into other cultures and places of the world, so you'll always have something to talk about:

Reading gives you an insight into the diversity of ethnicity of people, their customs and their lifestyles. You'll become more aware about different places and their codes of conduct in those places.

Ever found yourself in an embarrassing situation where you didn't have anything to talk about? How would you know about the life of people in Alaska if you hadn't read about it?

Want a remedy for this? It's simple. Start reading.

Reading really widens your horizon of information, so you'll always have something to talk about.

Ideally, reading should be split between fiction and nonfiction books. Fiction is definitely more exciting, but it does not yield long term knowledge benefits like nonfiction books do.

Wise Words!

"Not every reader is a leader, but every leader must be a reader."
Harry Truman.

"In our new knowledge economy, if you haven't learned how to learn, you'll have a hard time."

Peter Drucker

Relax and Pick Up A Good Book!

What is speed reading?

Is it just fast reading and nothing else? Of course it is the skill to read volume of words as you can per minute and be able to understand it. So it’s not just the heck of reading the words at all, it’s a matter of fast reading and comprehending what you read.


It is not inherent but it can be developed. Here is some self-help to speed reading for people who wants to develop the skill.

Studies has shown that the normal person’s average reading comprehension rate is about 75%.

When they tried speed reading, it reduces its reading comprehension to 50% or even less to some. This definitely beats the very purpose of reading, because comprehension and learning is compromised. So what then are the basics for effective speed reading?

Below is a handy self-help to speed reading. Check this out and try it out, if you want to develop the skill of it.

Scan the material first

It is best to scan the material before you start reading it so that you will have an idea of the topic at hand.

Best way to scan it is to read first the title, take in the paragraph heading and the overall length of the material. Comprehending what you read is very important. When you are done scanning you can proceed to the next step which is to decide how to tackle reading the material. Most prefer to spend a longer time on certain key paragraphs.

Focus on Keywords

Focusing on keywords is very helpful since you don’t have to read every word to get the idea. You can actually concentrate on the keywords and skip reading other words not so important like “the”, “an” and many more.

Re-reading words doesn’t apply in speed reading. It might be a common practice to everyone but it’s not advisable to re-read words when you are speed reading. The skill of skimming text might be hard to develop but it is not impossible either, it can be achieved with plenty of practice but when you have mastered the skill then you can achieve reading speeds up to 700 words per minute. Almost three times much faster than the normal reading speed of around 200 - 250 words per minute.

Practice is indeed important if you want to develop the skill of it. Get over this self-help to speed reading everyday and in no time you will be able to achieve your goal. Many people spend a lot of money on reading courses when you can achieve it yourself by following strictly the guidelines and tips for effective reading. The secret to it is practice every day and discipline. You have to have the persistence and the discipline to do it every day till you achieve the desired result that you want.

For others self-help to speed reading is just enough for them to develop their skills. For others who think they can’t do it on their own can always enroll on courses for speed reading. It is definitely an edge if you have that skill these days especially if you are involved in works where you have to comprehend and master volumes of information quickly. So if you have not developed that skill yet then better start now, besides it’s never too late to learn.

Reading to young children

Read, read to your children, how many times do you hear the importance of reading to your children starting at early age? Very often, the sooner you start the better are the chances your children will develop that love for books and literature.

Children need to have 1,000 stories read to them before they learn to read for themselves. Preschool children need 3 to 7 books read to them and at least they need to be exposed 3 to 5 new words each day. What other materials can you use to increase their vocabulary and spark their interest in reading and literature? You can use magazines, story books, catalogs, boxes, newspapers, sign and posters.

Your children are not enthusiastic about books? Make it fun! Create different environments to get the attention and interest of your children, involve them in getting the setting for the story. For instance, if you are reading a story about animals in the juggle, then find a spot in your backyard or a corner in your children's room for the setting, add stuff animals, pictures of animals and plants that you may find in magazines, move some of the fake plants you have in your house to the spot, or just make it cozy. Make fanny faces, use different tones of voice to imitate sounds and to make it more interesting. Before, during and after the reading ask children open-ended questions, these will increase their interest in the story, use their critical thinking and utilize and increase new vocabulary.

Reading is important for the development of the brain, socio-emotional skills, use and increase of new vocabulary words and the love for literature. When you read to children you are not only helping them to nurture the love for books, the desire to know, to explore and their literacy development but you are also providing your children with quality time.

Yulitza Aray