A friend, an avid book reader herself, recently emailed me this blurb. “A Yale University School of Public Health study found that regular book readers - more than three and a half hours a week - had a 23 percent better life expectancy compared to non-readers. Enjoying a work of fiction may also improve empathy, which can lower stress and help strengthen personal connections.”
According to Avni Bavishi, one of the researchers and authors of the study undertaken while she was completing her masters in chronic disease epidemiology, says, “I think there’s something about that deep reading that makes the effect stronger. Books, even more than long magazine or newspaper articles, seem to enhance quality of life.”
Author Jenny Colgan writes about her son who isn’t a big reader, but who, like so many children, fell in love with the Harry Potter series. He told her, “It’s not like a film - it’s like actually being there, Mum.” She adds, “I still believe reading is the best form of direct brain-to-brain communication humans have yet figured out.”
I’ve long preferred to read books rather than short stories. Since anyone rarely reads a novel or a nonfiction volume in one sitting, it becomes a series of stopping and returning to a single work. The time devoted to the endeavor gives the reader ample opportunity to contemplate, question and muse not only the plot and character development, but also the relationship of information to the reader’s life.
I also preferred teaching the novel. Longer works give us more opportunities to repeat lessons on foreshadowing, themes, symbolism, character development, all the elements authors use to show their stories.
Most lifelong readers begin to love reading before they even know the alphabet because someone has taken the time to read to them. This shared pleasure sparks a burning desire to be able to read on one’s own.
Those of us who love to read, those of us who no longer feel guilty when we stop chores to read for an hour or more, know we profit from reading. According to researchers, the ongoing benefits of reading books add up to living healthier lives.
Beyond the scientific studies, experts in a variety of fields point out assets a reader accumulates. Business Insider includes in its list some interesting tidbits. “Reading complex poetry helps the brain remain elastic and active. When you read a book, you have to remember a lot of things, including different characters, the main plot and any subplots. Children who read are better able to grasp abstract concepts. A children’s book exposes your child to 50 percent more words than watching a television show.”
Dr. Mojca Stubej Ars, whose speciality field is environmental sciences, also writes children’s books. She lists a number of advantages in reading, not only for children, but also for adults. “Reading reduces stress - while reading we cannot think of other tasks or worries. Reading helps build a better vocabulary. Reading stimulates imagination. Reading improves focus, concentration and memory. Reading improves language skills and gives us new knowledge. Reading entertains.”
As an only child growing up in a time prior to a television set in every room, books opened the doors to so many places, people and ideas for me. I remember when I graduated from the children’s library in the basement of a multi-story building to the larger adult section on the upper floors, my mother had to sign a permission slip. I could check out anything I wanted or I could check out nothing. There was no middle ground. Looking back, I’m so grateful that my mother helped me grow up by not only trusting me to find my own interests in books, but also by allowing me to ride the streetcar by myself to the library.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem is given a slice of the big cake, instead of a child’s cupcake, symbolizing his growing up. During this study, I asked my students to show me in their journals the concrete object given them to symbolize the abstract idea of their growing up. For most, it was their first hunting gun or a piece of family jewelry. For me, it was that permission slip to read whatever I wanted and the streetcar token to take myself to the library. Freedom.
2020
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