BOOK-A-HOLICS discussion

I've just started reading and at my current pace I think can finish 1 book per week so hopefully I'm looking at around 50 books digested in a year.

So basically I'm just wondering what positives can you attribute to reading alot ?. I guess the obvious things would be increased vocab, a gain in reading speed and better comprehension. What other things can you say you've noticed about yourself improve that could only be due to reading ?.

Thanks,
Marcus

Hi Marcus,

I am Dutch and read most books in English. So it definitely improves my English language skills which is beneficial also to my daily job in an international company.
But most of all, reading to me helps me to bring stress levels down and 'gain' calm & quiet. It's a sort of meditation for me. I have a very busy job and work long hours sometimes, reading helps me to take some distance from the busy and stressful existence and find a calm balance again... I'm reading the Shipping News of Annie Proulx right now and what a joy it is!

It broadens my world and definitely improves my writing skills. I firmly believe to be a good writer one needs to be a good reader. It's also an escape and mental aerobics.

CJ

It makes me smarter. I can figure out ways to vote by what I learned from reading history.

I gain perspective through reading. Reading also helps me understand people - or at least the characters - and their motives behind what they do. That's why I particularly like memoirs. I find people fascinating; I like reading about people.

For example, I'm just about finished Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls and it's written in the first person, through her grandmothers eyes. It's about her grandmother growing up as a child and it's interesting to read about the advancements throughout the 1900s and how one may respond to the many changes along the way.

It gives me great conversation starters when I run out of things to talk about I can always bring up my newest latest and greatest book that I am reading. I guess you have to have the right friends for something like that though because not everyone gives a crap about what you read.
I think it also sparks great ideas or thoughts in my mind and tends to help me to sleep better since my brain has to process so much of my day's activities and what I read.
Reading also got me into owning a bookstore, first I would read the book then I would sell it online and buy another. Then I started hunting books and selling more, then I found a used bookstore that sold the store to me and now I am living a BOOK-A-HOICS dream, free books, all I can read buffet :)

Wes, I think that is really neat that you have a used book store. That really is living a dream.

CJ

Reading helps me relax, and I also love learning about different time periods by reading non-fiction, such as biographies and autobiographies, or well-researched historical fiction. Many times you come away with the feeling that you have experienced an historical event or a particular era vicariously.

Reading has always been my escape. It has made me wise beyond my years, and opened up my mind. It has sensible benefits, such as a broader vocabulary and greater reading comprehension, but emotional benefits as well. Allowing your mind to unwind and relax. I have to read every night to be able to fall asleep. It has opened many doors for me over the years, something I hope to pass on to my children someday.

For me reading is a great hobby and passion. It something I can do when I have time to kill, want to relax, or just want to get a taste of a different world.

Reading opens our minds and gives us different perspectives. The many different books can teach us new things or remind us of old knowledge, values, morals, etc. With all the different genres, we can never get bored or say there's nothing else to read.


A world without books would be hell and I think I speak for all book lovers out there when I say that.

The first thing that comes to my mind is a bumper sticker that I am fond of, "If you can read this, thank a teacher." Reading has opened the wide world of knowledge to me.

Marcus wrote: "I've just started reading and at my current pace I think can finish 1 book per week so hopefully I'm looking at around 50 books digested in a year.

So basically I'm just wondering what positives..."

Reading and connections with people like all of you get me through many days. Life can be very difficult, but no one can take away my love for reading or the imagination I have that lets me live inside the books I love.

It's an escape. It lets me get away from whatever is going on in my life and simply relax. Hopefully when I'm done with school it'll provide me with a job!

Kristopher

It's always been escape but more than that- it gives me thoughts I wouldn't think by myself.
I remember reading Stephen King several years back being just amazed that these stories enter another human's head. A few years later, I had the same thought with James Patterson. I was shocked someone could think of some of that stuff.
I'm white bread. I'm vanilla. Books give me flavor and spice.

It's interesting to answer this question from the point of view of a nonreader (my husband). Luckily for me, though he's not a reader, he finds amusement in my addiction. He describes what books have done for me better than I: Apparently, if one places a book in my hands, my eyes sparkle, my smile brightens the entire room I'm in, and I come alive. In other words, reading gives me rest (from stress and worries), joy, and countless options to live, discover, and play in other worlds when my own world seems drab and limited.

I think reading opens the mind to give you techniques and skills to do anything. The brain needs to be worked and used constantly to keep you open and alert to everything in this wonderful world that was created for us. Reading is just the beginning step to doing this! So reading is a smart starting step to keeping you fresh and alert to things.