Why You Should Read More Books
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Books. When I was younger I remember that I used to spend most of my time pouring over books. Whether it was mystery, fiction, or nonfiction, I would read an innumerable amount of pages. Back then, books were the most engaging form of entertainment, and I would love to read to catch up with my favorite character’s stories. Whether it be Harry Potter or Captain Underpants, it seemed as if the adventures would never end. Fast forward some years, and I don’t really remember the last time I read a book for fun. After talking with some other students, they largely share the same sentiments as me: they used to read a lot of books, but now rarely read and spend most of their free time on social media or YouTube instead.
But what exactly sparked this change? How did we become passionate readers to reading a few chapters for our English Class assignments? The answer is simple: we gravitate toward instant-gratification entertainment like Netflix and our lives become too busy to read books. However, despite these notions, students should read more books in their spare time. Why should students worry about reading books when they have APs, homework, extracurriculars, and personal responsibilities to worry about? Well, according to studies, books are more than just entertainment as they can enrich your life. In fact, according to an article by Healthline, researchers were able to find through MRI scans that networks of signals in our brains become more developed through reading. This means that our “brain connectivity” increases, which means that our brains become stronger.
But reading books does more than just increase your IQ; in fact it actually is able to increase your ability to socialize with others. In fact the study goes on to further state that people who read fiction “show a heightened ability to understand the feelings and beliefs of others.” This means that people are better able to understand how to build relationships.
Also for students taking the SAT, there is a well-founded reason for teachers and parents recommending reading books as a way to study. The article goes on to further state that reading helps students to build their vocabulary size. Students can also feel less stress as the researchers found that just reading for a mere 30 minutes “lowered blood pressure, heart rate, and feelings of psychological distress just as effectively as yoga and humor did.”
Reading additionally can help sad emotions as well. In fact this reason is why the United Kingdom’s National Health Service created a book prescription program, which helps alleviate some conditions. This means that when you feel sad, upset, or angry it helps to read some books.
Finally, the same article also concluded that those who read a few hours each week were “23 percent likely to live longer than those who didn’t read at all.” This means that books can increase one’s lifespan, demonstrating that books are beneficial toward all aspects of one’s life.
Overall, books have shown to offer a plethora of benefits to students. Honestly, I would even argue that rather than using all of your study time for tests, it's good to take more books in between purely to just read books. This way, I believe that students’ grades will actually increase. If you want an easy way to access books, you can do so at our school library. Our school has a plethora of books, ranging from encyclopedias to graphic novels. As students find themselves more stressed and burnt out, a book can help balance out the negative emotions and provide an overall enriching experience. One of the regrets I had is that I replaced fulfilling books with cheap entertainment such as Netflix, YouTube, and social media. Even though I can enjoy these things, they should be a supplement to my entertainment, not the focus. But with the added benefits that these books provide, I now have an incentive to read more books. Although students may struggle to fit reading in their schedules, it is certain that they will find benefits through even reading a couple of minutes each day.