Written By Riya Kotecha (Grade 10)
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies – by George R R Martin
Reading is the most important skill of a human as it is the source of knowledge. Not only during our education is reading important, but throughout our life. Just not knowledge has many advantages. Reading actually builds our personality.
It can help us in reducing stress, aids sleep, increases empathy, improves our vocabulary, develops our conversation skills, teaches us good value and much more. Reading even gives us guidance on how to deal with the world when needed and changes our ways of thinking. Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible.
Then why do people avoid reading and feel that it is boring. There are an umpteen number of reasons for that from being unable to concentrate to not finding the time, etc. But if reading is made a priority, then there are no excuses which can stop us from reading. It’s all in the mind.
Many humans have seen a drastic change in their lifestyle by just reading 10-20 minutes a day. As we all know nothing is easy but at the same time, nothing is impossible too. A journey of a thousand miles begins from a single step. We can at least start by reading 10 minutes a day and eventually we might end up reading for hours.
When we read more and more, we learn more about others and ourselves. We learn to empathize and sympathize with people. Reading can even heal mental illness. If we can’t carry books everywhere then we can read e-books on our smartphones too.
In the end, it is our time and making it productive by reading for some time at least can be a great decision.
Featured Image Courtesy – AMLE
