How Reading Isn’t Just About Being “Book Smart”

The many ways books fine-tune our entire being

What seems like millennia ago, books were all the rage. They were the talk of the town, right at the heart of the next big entertainment release.

It was even said that select ladies would go to bed with Lord Byron’s latest work under their pillow, their hearts so captivated by his stories. At dinner parties attendees would discuss novels, even carving out some time to read (or hear from) an aspiring writer’s unfinished manuscript.

And then technology came along and books lost their luster (just look at the decline of the bookstore).

It’s no surprise we all prefer the ease of our digital devices to the obvious demands of words on paper.

A professor of psychology at San Diego State University had this to say:

Think about how difficult it must be to read even five pages of an 800-page college textbook when you’ve been used to spending most of your time switching between one digital activity and another in a matter of seconds.

Illustrated in this light, our phones win every day of the week.

Even the President doesn’t read.

But reading doesn’t have to be a mental slog. We’re all well aware the good outweighs the bad. Books aren’t for smart people. They make people smart.

And, apparently, a whole host of other things too.

As a stress-reliever

The New Yorker puts it this way:

Regular readers sleep better, have lower stress levels, higher self-esteem, and lower rates of depression than non-readers.

For its calmative powers, reading beats listening to music, sipping herbal tea, going for a walk and playing video games. Sitting on your bed or under a tree is highly underrated as a means of shutting out the world.

As you might imagine, securing a quiet space can slow your heart rate and undo muscle tension. A distraction-less environment is a great place to open up a book and hit pause on all of life that’s gnawing at your heels.

Cognitive neuropsychologist Dr. David Lewis calls reading the “ultimate relaxation”.

Making space in your busy schedule for 20 minutes of reading just might be your secret weapon to inner balance. Actually, a mere 6 minutes of reading a day can provide cumulative benefits for your wellbeing, starting from the inside.

As a memory-booster

Reading has been shown to contribute to stronger retention and less memory decay over time. Your brain as a muscle requires exercise, and what better way to keep it in shape and sharp than by reading?

For longevity purposes, reading can also stave off — or at least delay the onset of — dementia. It’s a counter to plaque in the brain and, more generally, cognitive deterioration.

Research has indicated “increased brain volume among people who engaged in such diverse cognitive activities as studying for medical exams, apprenticing as a London taxi driver, deciphering mirrored words or Morse codes, learning novel color names and performing brainteasers.”

In other words, have a good piece of literature be your brain’s personal trainer and you’ll be well on your way to optimized brain performance.

As a way to become more empathetic

Can reading really help us be nicer? More emotionally intelligent?

A study discovered that a certain type of reading lends itself to being more empathetic. That type of reading is literary fiction, which is different from genre fiction and non-fiction.

Literary fiction is about exploring characters’ psychology and their relationships. But this process isn’t always explicit. We have to cobble together our own ideas to understand what we’re dealing with.

We must imagine “introspective dialogues”. It’s this “psychological awareness [that] carries over into the real world, which is full of complicated individuals whose inner lives are usually difficult to fathom.”

Data continues to grow in support of the thinking that reading does indeed activate theory of mind, or the ability to grasp others’ state of mind and the why behind their actions.

A Chekhov or a David Foster Wallace is always at your service.

As an intellectual stimulant

Reading strengthens your fluid intelligence, which is how you problem-solve and identify patterns with little to no background on the matter.

Crystallized intelligence, or what you know (facts, information skills), is aided through reading as well.

Now to vocabulary acquisition. Doesn’t it seem that those who speak “well” read plenty?

In this study, it was confirmed that there’s

an association between word-reading ability and the rate of subsequent vocabulary growth.

In Michelle Obama’s Becoming, she writes of how voracious a reader Barack was and still is. She writes how in the middle of the night she’d roll over to him staring up at the ceiling, pondering what he’d just read.

This analysis of rhetoric calls Barack Obama a “formal orator” with “balance and rhythm in his prose style”.

While reading doesn’t ensure you’ll be Obama-esque in your delivery, it sure won’t hurt.

In a recent NPR: Life Kit episode on fitness, motivations were debated. Should you exercise to lose weight? To look good? To not be lazy?

How about none of the above.

It was recommended that you should exercise because of how it makes you feel. Your driving reason for getting in the gym should be intrinsically based. That’s to say, you should want to exercise for yourself, not for anyone else. You should want that positive feeling, which in turn boosts your mood and brightens your day.

The same goes for reading. You shouldn’t read with the sole intention of raising your IQ or impressing others. You should read because you want to for yourself.

If you do, you’ll find it’s much easier to sustain the “effort” over time. Soon, it’ll be pure pleasure to read, instead of something you have to keep up for appearances.