Why Reading Books Is A Good Habit

      Most people think that reading books is a boring activity. Many people prefer to talk with someone to share something than reading books. They believe that talking with someone is more fun and interesting to do than reading books. The most common reason for this is that many people have highly social nature. So, they like talking or chatting with someone than reading books. For example, many students in class usually talk with someone during recess. They think that chatting with someone is more interesting than reading books. They usually  read books only when the teacher gives tasks to read some books. Actually, reading books has a lot of benefits. Reading books has at least three benefits : broadening knowledge, improving writing skills, and reducing stress.

      First, reading books can broaden knowledge. There is so much general knowledge that we have to know, from psychology, computer, to solar system, etc. But, the problem is that we often don’t learn about it formally. We must learn it individually from many sources. Nowadays, there are many sources to find. Most people usually try to broaden their knowledge by watching television or browsing on the internet. In fact, reading books is one of good sources to learn about something. From books, we can know not only about general explanations, but also additional explanations that might not be able to find it from the internet or from television. For example, by reading science books, we can know many things in the world, such as about viruses and bacteria that are very dangerous and useful for human being. Reading books also can exercise our brain. So, it can increase our IQ points. Nowadays, there are many ways to increase our IQ points. Most people usually try to play some musical instrument to increase IQ points. They believe that playing musical instrument is more relaxing than others. Actually, by reading books, especially mystery books, our brain would be exercised. With high IQ points, our analyzing skills will be higher than before. Reading books also can broaden knowledge to solve many problems based on facts, not only based on many opinions. New information that we read and our background knowledge and experience can improve our problem solving skills.

      Second, reading books can improve writing skills. Books can be good source of ideas to write short story. When we have no ideas to write about a certain topic for writing, reading books is one of good ways to get good ideas. Reading books will give us some ideas that we may not have discovered by ourselves. Reading also helps to clarify the difficult aspects or areas of the topics. Reading exposes us many new words and phrases that we can learn to use in writing that also can increase our vocabulary skills. Our vocabulary and background knowledge on the topic increases with reading. Not only vocabulary skills, but reading books extensively also helps us discover new patterns of organizing compositions for an interesting piece of writing. Through reading, we are able to find out more about special interests. Then, write and put all the ideas that we have learned into a piece of writing. During practice, you may use some books for guidance. Remember that we are not a professional writer. We must read some books to guide us to make a good piece of writing. We also get to learn more about target reader's background knowledge about the particular topic.

      Last but not least, reading books can reduce stress. Besides watching movies, playing online games, and listening to music, reading books can make us forget our problems for some time. Reading books can be a wonderful and healthy way to escape from the stress of everyday life. By reading books, we allow ourselves to be invited into a literary world that distracts us from our daily stress. Reading can even relax your body by lowering your heart rate and easing the tension in your muscles. If we want to read something that is useful for reducing stress, make sure to choose books which are interesting and have simple plots. A book that we want to read does not have to be on the list of “best-seller”. Reading only helps reduce stress if we pick something that won't upset us. Reading newspaper may not be the best choice if it makes us feel angry or confused. There are many examples of books that might help us reduce stress for some time, such as novels and comics. For example, for someone who likes science and fantasy books, he may want to read book which has complex plot, and science fiction is a good choice to read. If we don’t want to read many words, comic is the best idea. Many genres of novels or comics that we can choose, such as comedy, romance, horror, science fiction, thriller, fantasy, etc.

      In brief, reading books is a good habit for us. Do not always think that reading books is boring and make us feel confused and dizzy. There are many ways to make us to feel more relax while we reading books, such as reading book with illustrations and colors, reading interesting novels or comics which are based on the synopsis, reading interesteing books with short plots, etc. Always remember not to judge a book based on its cover. Sometimes, an eye-catching and colorful cover does not always have a good story in it. Choose books wisely from the bookstore before buying them.

By Tamariska Priskila