“There is so much more to a book than just the reading.” -Maurice Sendak
Truer words have never been spoken, written nor read. Reading anything is much more than just seeing words written on a page and recognizing what those words are. Recognizing the letters formed into words, seeing the structure those words make in the sentence isn’t all there is to reading. There is so much more.
Simply put, reading stimulates the brain, the mind. Whether you’re reading a history text or science fiction novel, you’re stimulating your mind in several different ways.
Reading improves your comprehension. Seeing the words written or typed is only the first step, your ability to understand those words and what they mean leads to understanding what the message is behind the words. Comprehension is directly linked to improving your vocabulary. Simply by using the context of the sentence you are able to figure out the intended meaning of a word that you are not familiar with. By reading and understanding, you’ve just added a new word to your vocabulary and improved your comprehension.
Regardless of what material you are reading, your mind will spring to action with images. Involuntarily, your imagination creates images to the words you’re reading. Some of these images will be those your mind has associated with specific words. Some of these images will be a direct creation of your imagination based upon the description that you are reading. Reading the words “coffee mug” will conjure that very image in your mind where as reading a description of a fictional character will let your imagination create an image based off of that unique description.
Your memory is directly affected by reading. You’ve found a word that you’re not familiar with, you use the context of the sentence to get the intended meaning, your mind files that word away in your memory. That isn’t all, when reading, your memory files away the images your mind created. After reading and comprehending the intended message behind the words your memory keeps it.
We’ve only scratched the surface of reading’s importance to your brain. Whenever you read whether you’re studying for that history exam or simply enjoying that new fantasy novel, your brain fires up and your mind is charged. From comprehension to vocabulary, from images in your mind’s eye to your memory, all parts of your brain work together. It changes the way you think and directly improves your life.
If you want to get the best out of reading contact us and we’ll get you in the right direction.
