I’ve read books before; I’m not illiterate. But recently, I found myself thinking about the amount of time I spent watching stuff on Netflix or playing video games instead of reading. I realized that if I want to improve my life, then reading more would be beneficial – what with all the knowledge one can attain from books. There are quite a few reasons why you should read more books.

1) Reading is good for your brain! It’s like exercise for your hands and eyes (and mind)! You can’t have too much of it! Go ahead – look at this great infographic to learn even more about how awesome books are for your brain activities.

2) Books give you something exciting to do other than spend hours playing video games. It’s like TV, but it uses your imagination instead of your sense of sight. And you know what they say – “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.”

3) You can learn things that will change your life by reading about them! If you spend all day watching TV or playing video games, then you’re wasting time not learning new stuff! Try this – go to YouTube and search for something interesting. Now imagine if there were other channels dedicated to other topics; you’d have so much more to watch than just one channel, right? Well, books are like lots of little channels in one book – except better because they’re specifically intended for knowledge instead of just entertainment purposes. Of course, this only serves as an analogy. Books are way better than YouTube.

4) You can read while doing other things! It’s like multitasking, but less stressful on yourself because you don’t have to focus 100% of your attention on what you’re reading – unlike some TV shows or video games (where the main point is to keep your eyes glued to the screen). When I watch stuff at night, I sometimes fall asleep and miss parts of it because my mind has been weakened from overworking itself during the day. But when I read a book before bed, or in any other situation where I’m not fully awake, my mind isn’t fading away into dreamland yet. In short – reading won’t make me tired and sleepy! Wheeee!

5) Books are FREE or cheap at your local library! You don’t have to spend a lot of money if you’re trying to save for something, and it’s still fun because you get to learn new stuff while saving the environment by not adding more paper wastes into landfills. Also: libraries can be like having your own personal nerd book store (for free)! I mean… if that doesn’t make you want to go on a shopping spree in the self-help section, then I don’t know what will. Because everyone wants free stuff – but why pay when you can get it for free?

6) Reading is relaxing and fun (also known as therapeutic)! No matter how stressful your day has been, reading a book relaxes you. It’s not just me that thinks so – science says so too! And it doesn’t have to be just fictional books either – nonfiction books are also therapeutic because they can help you learn new things about yourself, your friends, family, etc.

For example… I’ve read some self-help/self-improvement type of books before. One book changed my perspective on how I should approach certain situations in life; another taught me what happiness really is and how it relates to success (and vice versa); yet another helped me understand the complexities of people better by explaining why they do what they do. There are countless examples out there to choose from – all you have to do is find the right ones!

7) You can read books for fun and/or you can learn things in a way that’s convenient for your schedule and lifestyle. There are literally thousands and thousands of books out there (although it seems like limitless amounts because we only see the library part instead of all the stacks at the back), so you’ll always be able to find something new to read when you’re bored – whether it’s about mental disorders, history, politics, religion, philosophy, psychology… anything! Heck, maybe even read about how to start reading more books if that sounds interesting enough! And don’t forget: bookstores near where I live give away free stuff every month or two; who knows? Maybe they’ll have a giveaway next time and give away books! No, I’m not saying that you should stop reading this article to go there right now. I’m just saying that maybe they’ll have a contest the next time around and give away free books for participants or something. Yeah… that’s what I meant. Lolz 😛

8) Reading exercises your brain in a good way which makes it feel better when doing so! Everyone knows how fun crossword puzzles are because our brains get a workout every time we try to figure out the answers in them. Well, guess what? Books can serve as a replacement for ‘reading puzzles!’ Just imagine: instead of staring at questions on paper with no real answer to work towards, you can read about problems others face and be able to relate to them and be able to learn new perspectives based on what you’ve read. It’s like solving a puzzle only it’s not called a ‘puzzle’ and there aren’t any answers provided so you can find out for yourself what the answers are by reading about them! And if you haven’t figured this one out already, books help you learn more about life.

9) You can feel smarter when reading books because books inspire us to actually use that super high IQ of ours! We all know someone who has an extremely high IQ but wastes their potential by doing stupid things (and no, I’m not talking about anyone in particular). Well… let’s make a NEW friend instead: NEW is a person whose amazing brain spends its time learning things – cool things, interesting things, fun things… anything! It’s time to be NEW.

10) Reading books can help you increase your self-confidence by improving yourself through knowledge acquisition. Let me explain: when you read a book or learn something new in some other way, it gives you the opportunity to use what you learned to better yourself! For example: if I didn’t read that self-improvement book before, then I wouldn’t have known what happiness is and how important it is to success (and vice versa). Now that I know this information, maybe my friends will start complimenting how happy I am all the time – isn’t that wonderful? NOTE: Make sure not to get carried away with finding out why reading does all this for you – if you get carried away, then the article is over already! Yay!

So there you have it: 10 reasons why reading more books will change your life. And I only used examples from my own life to back up what I was talking about in case anyone was wondering. What a coincidence that they’re all true stories of my past experiences with books! So anyways… if you’re not convinced yet that reading books will change YOUR life too even though the many benefits have just been explained in this article, then how about some more convincing? That’s right: MORE instead of less. In fact… perhaps TOO much more might convince people who are on the fence about whether or not to read a book or not. So, to avoid scaring off the people who really need to read this article, I’ll cut it short here. 🙂

Happy reading! And remember: If you’re not convinced that reading books can improve your life even if all 10 reasons are true for you too (and they will be), then don’t read another book until you are convinced, or else you might miss out on one of the most important opportunities in your life! See ya next time!