Our new Further community, Well + Wealthy, may have launched with a fitness challenge, but I’ve been reading between the lines: we have a lot of bookworms in the house.
This is good news for many reasons, not just because reading sets you up for success by expanding your knowledge, intelligence, and critical thinking skills. That’s all part of the explicit function of books, but science shows the act of reading itself has profound positive psychological, emotional, and physical impacts, too.
Just in the nick of time — Pew Research reports only 17% of teens read for fun (around half as many as when we were kids in the mid-80s). Adults are also reading less: Pew reports Americans ages 50+ are more likely than their younger counterparts to be non-book readers.
So, if you’re already a devoted reader, congrats — your bookish ways are validated. But if you live on a diet of podcasts, bingeable shows, and doomscrolling, consider cracking a book.
This is Your Brain on Books
Nowadays, offsetting the effects of our daily activities with the ancient practice of reading is more essential than ever before.
Most modern hobbies psychologically damage us. Social media, for example, wastes our time, feeds us misinformation, and increases our risk of depression. Yet there’s a reason we keep returning to it: it provides short, sharp entertainment without requiring much effort or concentration.
When you bury your nose in a book, you automatically get the antidote to our driven-to-distraction world. MRI-backed research shows reading helps strengthen brain connectivity, lightening up crucial networks beyond the period of time when you’re reading. And research shows lifelong readers have a 32% decreased risk of dementia.
Best of all, there’s a survival advantage of reading books: a long-term study found that people who read three and a half or more hours a week were 23% more likely to live longer.
So, if it feels like reading is a lifesaver, that’s because it is.
Read to Become a Better Person
It’s true: psychologist David Comer Kidd found that fiction enthusiasts are more empathetic. They’re also less stressed, anxious, and depressed, and enjoy better rest. And long-term readers who are privy to fictional characters’ minds become better able to understand others’ thoughts, desires, and beliefs in real life — what psychologists call “a theory of mind.”
This is perhaps why the therapeutic field of bibliotherapy has become increasingly popular. A bibliotherapist helps you work through emotional issues, clarify goals, and solve problems using genres from fiction to memoir, self-help, and philosophy. This approach improves self-esteem, self-awareness, and self-efficacy, which, in turn, helps you be more present, patient, and loving.
So, if you’ve always enjoyed reading but don’t make the time, or even if reading’s not your jam, now’s the perfect time to turn the page.
