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5 Benefits Of Reading You Didn't Know Before
Reading is often the only way to access certain information. Although other ways are available (audio, video and more) reading has long been proven to be an invaluable information-accessing skill. Apart from the self-evident benefit of accessing knowledge, there are other lesser-known but equally significant benefits to reading.

Boosts critical thinking

With reading you can gather experiences not otherwise reachable (you can't time-travel to the Renaissance or to 2140 for that matter, but you can read all about it). Reading has an extraordinary capacity to boost empathy and cultivate awareness on an inexhaustible range of topics.
Reading makes people more tolerant to the different and the unknown. It cultivates both critical and logical thinking, making people more open to new ideas.

Keeps cognitive skills fit, improves memory

Reading has been touted as a great activity for preventing cognitive deterioration. Older people, who spend time reading and applying other cognitive-related practices, slow down their brain degradation.
What's more, reading is also associated with improved memory, as reading tends to be a more challenging activity for the brain. Reading requires an active brain, rather than simple reception of visual or auditory stimuli from a television.

Enhanced career opportunities

Reading affects many other interpersonal and professional skills. It allows people to accumulate valuable knowledge, express themselves eloquently, and improve other skills essential for career advancement.
In turn, these improved career opportunities mean increased income - all this just for being an insatiable reader!

Boost curiosity for learning and discovering new knowledge

Reading fiction and non-fiction alike helps foster personal growth. Reading allows people to discover unknown worlds and new possibilities. Self-growth is possible through persistent reading of quality material. The latter can open up new worlds of being and doing that provides new areas for self-improvement.

Unplug and Relax

Reading has always been a mental retreat, an escape from busy lives into another world without the daily worries waiting back in reality. This escape is especially important for the hectic 21st century lifestyles most people lead. Reading provides opportunities to be a different person, to live a different life, and to discover amazing parallel realities.

Bonus benefit: Improving vocabulary and spelling

Reading can substantially help in vocabulary and spelling improvement. Our interaction with books and other reading material sharpens language skills by enriching our vocabulary and improving our spelling of common and less-common words. What's more, literacy skills help us become better at self-expression. Spending time reading is an easy way to develop a better vocabulary and automatically improve spelling.