One of the basic reasons why reading is important is that it helps you grow mentally, emotionally

and psychologically. Every book gives you an opportunity to learn new things and explore new
ideas. Reading books increases your knowledge and makes you smarter.

But the importance of reading is not limited to just these benefits. You will be amazed to know
how beneficial reading books can be for you. And that is exactly what you will get to know here
in this article.

Here are 17  reasons why reading is important for everyone!

1. It helps you discover yourself

Every good book opens up new dimensions of thoughts for the reader. When you read a book,
you somehow try to connect the events, emotions, experiences and characters in the books with
yourself. This not only keeps you engrossed into the book but it also makes you realize how you
would react and feel to those situations that have not yet occurred in your life.

It helps you broaden your dimension of likes and dislikes and things that would please you. So
with every page that you read, you have a chance to discover a new part of yourself!

2. Imparts valuable lessons from years of experiences

Books are not written in a day. For an Author, it takes a lot of hard work, understanding,
experiences, knowledge and in many cases lots of pain to come up with a single book. But we as
a reader get to read them in just weeks or days thereby living years of experiences in
considerably less time.

3. It improves your Focus and Concentration

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The Internet has definitely revolutionized our world. But there’s a huge drawback too. For many
of us, a large part of our day is spent surfing, chatting, watching videos, reading unnecessary
memes and articles online. No wonder people are growing more impatient and losing focus.

However, reading books is one of those constructive habits that actually help us improve our
concentration power. It helps us to train our brain to focus our attention and live in the present.

4. Reading improves your emotional health

Books are full of emotions. Sometimes they will make you cry with every turning page and
sometimes they will just keep you smiling. It can fill you with anger when the antagonist of the
story succeeds in his evil plan, but again it can give you immense pleasure to see your hero
achieving his goal.

Books can make us happy, sad, jealous, loved, betrayed and so on! Books are thus an
amalgamation of different mixed emotions that ultimately help us grow emotionally!

5. Importance of Reading in memory enhancement

There are a lot of things that we need to remember while reading a book. Name of the characters
and their features, name of the places, plots and sub-plots, the sequence of events, important
conversations etc. are some of the key information we need to keep in mind while reading. And
the ability to retain these information keeps improving with the number of books that you read.

As your brain learns to remember the information from the story-line, it also becomes better at
remembering other things of your life. So by reading books, you are also indirectly training your
brain in improving your memory.

6. It’s a great source of motivation

Life is tricky. Sometimes there are moments in our life when we feel down and discouraged. We
may lose our hope and interest in life and just want to give up. Well, in times like this,
sometimes all we need is a little motivation, little push in the right direction.

Reading a good inspirational book during such period can change our way of thinking and give
us hope and motivation. Books are no doubt a huge source of motivation. We can derive great
inspirations from them and transform our lives positively.

7. It expands your knowledge and makes you smarter

Books are a very rich source of information. With every book you read, you get to learn new
things. The more you read, the more you know about different people, their behavior and
experiences, different places, different cultures and facts that otherwise you would not have
known.

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Reading books somehow or the other adds depth to your knowledge base. With your increasing
knowledge, you become capable of making better decisions and choices in life. You become
aware of your surroundings and tend to have an open mind.

With so many new things learned, people who read, obviously tend to be smarter than people
who don’t!

8. Broadens your Imagination and enhances your creativity

“It was a bright cold day on April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”. This is the famous
opening line of the novel 1984 by George Orwell.

How do you interpret this line?

In reality, we hardly experience conditions like this. Standard Striking Clock strikes a maximum
twelve times. Similarly, we rarely have a day both bright and cold simultaneously. However,
George Orwell tries to paint the gloomy yet hopeful condition of life by some imaginative
references. The interpretation can vary from person to person though.

This is the beauty of books. It makes you imagine things beyond possibility – things that would
not come to our mind normally. Books give you a lot to think about. They also give you the
opportunity to have your own perspectives and imaginations into play!

Apart from this, different creative characters, plots, and approaches trigger your creativity as
well. You become both creative and imaginative!

There are also many books on creativity that can particularly shape and boost your creative
thinking. 

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9. It makes you more empathic
Another reason why reading is important is because it makes you empathic. Being empathic
means being able to understand and share the feelings of others. Books connect you with their
characters and plots. You yourself become a part of the book and feel what the characters are
supposed to feel. You understand their pain and grievances.

Books also somehow make you feel connected with the authors. You are constantly in some sort
of conversation with the book. When you are attentive to reading books, you are actually
listening to what the book has to say to you. This makes you a good listener. So reading books
develop empathy and thus help you to understand what others feel under different circumstances.

10. Reduces stress and helps you sleep better

Reading is one of the best ways to relax your mind. According to a Research by University of
Sussex reading for even six minutes can reduce your stress levels by as high as 68 percent!

Psychologists believe that this is probably because when we are lost in a book, our mind is
focused on reading and that little distraction from the real world and our problems into a literary
world eases the tensions in muscles and heart.

So the ultimate way of relaxing your mind is by losing yourself in a book! Read more and you
will realize yourself that your stress level becomes significantly low with time.

Reading has a pretty positive impact on another important aspect of our life – a good night sleep!
Reading books calms your mind and helps you sleep better. You can check out my article on
benefits of reading before bed to know more.

However, avoid reading thrillers, horror, and mystery or suspense genre books before going to
bed. If you are so lost in such books, you might end up staying awake instead. So, better read
some calming, inspirational books that would give you positive vibes without making you
impatient.

11. Importance of Reading in enhancing your critical and

analytical thinking
While reading, a lot of information are being processed in our brain simultaneously. It opens up
many different perspectives for your brain to comprehend. If you are reading a mystery or
suspense book, your brain constantly tries to guess certain outcomes and events. It also has to
relate one event to the other to make sense in the story. All this, in turn, sharpens our mind and
enhances our critical and analytical thinking skills.

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12. It gives you joy and pleasure

One basic reason why we read is simply because we enjoy reading. Reading brings joy and
happiness in our life. We don’t have to depend on someone else to be happy and pleased. It’s
true that sometimes reading can be little challenging or even boring, but such conditions are very
rare if you know your taste and choose your books accordingly.

13. It makes you humble

Reading books not only enlighten you with knowledge, but it also makes you realize how much
you do not know about the world. With each book teaching you something new, you can’t help
but think how limited your knowledge is.

You read a book because you know it will add some new pieces of information in your mind
which was so far unknown to you. However, it definitely does not mean you are not smart. It
simply shows that you have accepted the truth that what you know is not everything.

There are so many things you can learn and this would not be possible unless you are humble
enough to accept this truth!

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14. Improves your vocabulary, language command, and
communication skills
If you are a reader, you probably know the importance of reading in enhancing your vocabulary.
Reading books is one of the best ways to improve your vocabulary.

Moreover, the conversations in the books also help you to strengthen your command over the
language. Your sentence formation becomes quick, better and qualitative. You rarely get stuck
for lack of words.

Once you have a richer vocabulary and controlled command over the language, your
communication skills automatically become better.

15. Importance of reading in improving your brain functions

Books has tremendous power. It can shape our lives for good. It can also significantly improve
our brain functions!

Research from Emory University in Atlanta Georgia suggests that reading a powerful work of
fiction can make neural changes in your brain thereby improving your brain functions! The
changes occur in the ‘resting-state’ of the brain and can last for days.

16. Being lonely will not bother you much

If you are a book lover, you are never really alone! You can always have a friend in the form of a
book. And there’s reason why book lovers consider books to be their best friends. Books don’t
complain, neither do they have any demands. They just be with you no matter what. You can

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carry them wherever you want and read them whenever you want provided you make
time for reading.

If you are interested to know more on why we book lovers consider books as our best
friends, check out this article on 12 reasons why books are our best friends!

17. It makes you a better person

One of the most significant importance of reading is that it helps you grow as a person. As
mentioned above, reading makes you empathic and humble.

You learn about the hardships in life from experiences of others. You will learn to understand
people and be kind and gentle. You will have a better emotional health.

Your increased knowledge can also be useful for other people who may look up to you for
advice and suggestions. With all this, you are bound to become a better human being!

Of course, these are just a few reasons to show the importance of reading in everyone’s life.
There can be many other specific reasons why reading is important.

For a person in the corporate world, reading may have different benefits than that of a person in
sports. But the bottom line is that reading actually is very important, no matter in what field you
are.

And if you aren’t reading yet, you should not wait any longer. The best time to start reading is
today!

Happy Reading!