Reading books: A habit that everyone should cultivate

You are so wrong to say that reading books is no longer as crucial as before; that it loses its value as a pastime, an entertainment, a leisure activity—a hobby. You are so wrong when you call this hobby “tedious.” And most importantly, you are so wrong to call a bookworm “a boring person”—someone pretentious, nerdy, awkward, unattractive, no fun, introverted and antisocial.

I’ll tour you around and show you the marvels found only in the world bookworms wander around.

First: it expands our horizons and makes us more empathetic and tolerant. Reading books exposes us to various cultures even without experiencing them firsthand. We see how other people perceive things—their opinions and values. We get to understand them better and, at the same time, reflect on ourselves. That being said, we can say that reading books can create a world that allows us, humans, to live in harmony and peace.

Second: it is therapeutic. Reading books heals us from our mental problems—our traumas—in ways that seem so magical we never could imagine. We get to experience different situations and build an emotional connection. And this influences and helps us get through our agonies. It helps us deal with the horrors that have been hunting us. By allowing us to explore fictional scenarios, we get to achieve our therapeutic goals.

Third: it serves as an inspiration. We get to experience the life that we are only dreaming of—ones that reality does not permit us access to. And because of this, we strive to fulfill those dreams. At first, it ignites the sleeping will within us to be the best version of us; and once it does, reading books keeps that fire burning for us not to lose our enthusiasm. Reading is great, for what we read may inspire us and help us achieve our goals in life.

Fourth: it enhances one’s creative ability. Our imagination becomes broader every time we read a book. We discover a lot of things most people do not know of. Reading books stimulates our brains, and we foster the ability to create mental images and scenarios that can help improve our personal life or the world even. As information after information floods our minds, then we apply our imagination to processing those seas of facts that we learned, we can make an innovation—create unique ideas out of them, especially in situations that demand imaginativeness.

Fifth: becoming a museum of words. Without the element of treachery, but with the pure intention of discovering, picture yourself as the explorer Ferdinand Magellan who is in an expedition, but for words instead of spices. That is who we become when we read books. As we travel the world, or should I say read our books, we get to uncover words that we never knew existed— words that surprise and amaze us. And then we get to keep and treasure them—build a museum where we get to see and admire every now and then the words we discovered through the course of our expedition. And the best news is, we destroy nothing and no one during the process, as well as we get to show our museum to others without the fear of getting the artifacts stolen.

Sixth: of high importance, it keeps us away from diseases, specifically those related to memory loss. Scientific studies have shown that reading books improves the capacity of our minds to maintain memories. This prevents, or at least, delay the onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. It can also increase our IQ, which, for many, is essential for their work or, for students, our academic performance.

Reading books is a habit that is more than just sitting or lying, holding a bind of pieces of paper that contains words; it is a habit that introduces us to things that are out of this world. Sure, there may be nothing new to this activity from how it was in the long past, but it is still as beneficial as it was before. It improves a reader’s quality of life—improving intelligence, creativity, peace of mind, memory retention capacity, and most of all, our relationship with other people.

It is a habit that everyone should cultivate.

Jude Ronniedel T. Mangoma