Gotta love reading … it’s good for your brain.

“Hmm that looks interesting …”

There have been quite a few studies conducted on why reading is good for our health. The people who read already know the rewards of reading a novel, a self help or an educational book. Searching through the many postings and articles on the Internet it’s easy to come away convinced that reading is one of the best things anyone can do. Why wouldn’t we all want to do something that can make  us smarter and healthier.

” The horse  in the picture is …”

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.” ~ Carl Sagan (source)

 “What do you think? “

In a post from http://www.huffingtonpost.com titled “Why Reading Is Good For Your Brain” I’ve included an excerpt for you to ponder :- “To quantify the claim that school teachers have been making for centuries, a group of Stanford neurobiologists, led by literary scholar Natalie Phillips, examined blood flow in the brains of subjects who were instructed to read passages from Jane Austen’s “Mansfield Park” while inside MRI machines.

The findings were unexpected: Subjects were asked to read leisurely at first, and then to make a shift towards more critical reading. In both instances, Philips noticed an increase in blood flow that exceeded “just work and play.” In the case of more critical reading–the type you’d engage in while writing an essay or preparing for a test–blood flow increased beyond executive function regions, or those areas responsible for problem-solving. In other words, both leisurely reading and close-reading could benefit us neurologically in pretty significant ways.”

“Psst don’t tell Sorsha, she’s so jealous but I think it’s you on the cover?”

Even with all the research and the experts who advise reading books should be a part of your daily routine, the statistics show just how little people read.

25% of adults will not read a single book this year

33% of high school graduates never read another book for their entire life

42% of college graduates never read another book after college

80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year

As a reader I can’t even comprehend how someone doesn’t want to read a book. On top of the now obvious health, psychological, and creative benefits of reading books, they’re just plain fun. For instance, you generally learn something from books, you are entertained or made laugh, you might live a family saga or learn something about a breed of animal you love,  the list goes on. You should try it out. Thirty minutes a day, turn off everything but your brain and see how much better you feel. I bet you’ll be surprised.

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