by Martie Lownsberry

Created on: June 16, 2009   Last Updated: June 20, 2009

Reading is quickly becoming a lost art. Where once you could see people reading books on bus rides, in doctor's offices, and even on the beach these sightings are becoming rarer and rarer. The paperback novel that was a stay of most of our childhoods is being replaced by MP3 players and minuscule video players. Sadly, people do not realize what they are losing.

Books are not only a wonderful and inexpensive form of entertainment, they also increase your knowledge and opens new avenues of thought. That's right, reading can actually make you smarter and more enlightened.

People who are avid readers have a much broader general knowledge base than those who don't. They know a little bit about many subjects and are more able to apply that knowledge to given situations when the need arises. They also tend to have an easier time understanding new concepts than people who forgo reading in favor of other pursuits.

Reading also increases a persons knowledge of words and their meanings making it easier to understand verbal and written directions and ideas as well as making them better communicators themselves.

People who read a lot tend to be better writers. Reading books that are well written unconsciously teaches a person how to form sentences and paragraphs properly making what they write easier to read and follow. Many times, just the act of repeatedly seeing good and interesting writing styles makes the readers own written work more interesting as they learn from the best writers available.

Reading not only increases your communication skills but can also help you acquire knowledge in almost any other field as well, be it history, architecture, politics, science or what have you. The more you read about any given field the more you will know.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of reading however is that it allows us to have an opportunity, regardless of income or where we live to learn about other cultures, their customs, and their belief systems. By learning about how others live we become more enlightened and more understanding about those who live differently than we do.

Through reading you can travel to every continent and visit every civilization past and present. You can learn first hand the struggles and accomplishments of all people and get a chance to look their at lives in comparison to yours.

Reading continually bombards you with new ideas and fresh perspectives opening your mind to a world of possibilities you never would have thought of on your own.

The knowledge you gain through reading makes you smarter and more knowledgeable, more enlightened and more creative. There is no other form of entertainment that does so much so cheaply, and in the comfort of your own home.

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