Why reading makes you more creative ?
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"The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." ~ Dr. Seuss
There were conducted a lot of studies on the benefits of reading books. When you read about all psychological benefits of reading , you have an impression that reading is some sort of super drug, which makes you smarter and improves your mood. According to the studies, it is not wrong at all.
For the people who work creatively, for example, writers or designers, reading in general is not a problem at all, important is what they read though. Magazines, blogs or articles are a great source of information about everything people want to know or learn, but it doesn’t work on one’s brain or imagination as reading books. Books require from the reader to be focused. Thanks to this focused state, it is possible to work on our creativity.
Couple of benefits from reading books:
- Reading books exercises your mind - mental fitness is as much important as physical one, our brain needs exercises every day to be in good shape. It is said that reading books just 30 minutes daily makes you think and use your imagination. You need to comprehend reasoning and ideas, the plot and all the information hidden between the lines as well. Training the brain is like any other exercise - the more you train the better you can get!
- Reading books leads to better concentration - Because we live in the age of information, we are surrounded by words, data, links, updates, advertisements and all the other information, sometimes we cannot even process everything. A very good thing to do when we are tired of this is to turn off all the devices, the TV, computer, phone, grab a good book and sit down and relax. Concentrate. While reading you build images in your head, think about words, what they mean, why they are written this way, you create opinions and thoughts in your head. You use critical thinking, logic to understand information, concept and ideas passed by an author. It completely absorbs your mind. The more we read, the easier it becomes for us to concentrate and to think clearly.
- Reading books makes you more confident and a better communicator - A great side effect of reading is that your vocabulary enlarges. It is good to have more words in your head to use. It makes you a better communicator. If you can tell everything you have in your mind, it gives you more self-confidence.
- Reading increases your knowledge - it is said that reading enables lifelong learning and thirst for knowledge. Books include a shadow of an author, his imagination about the past, present or the future. Ideas passed by him and filtered by our imagination. You can discover a great amount of information. The more you know, the more you want to know...
Below I put the statistics about how (not) much people read in general.
- 80% of people in the US didn’t read any book last year
- 42% of people who finished their studies never read a book
- 33% of people who graduated from high school never read a book
- 25% of people in general will not read any book this year
Source: http://www.statisticbrain.com/reading-statistics/
As you can see, there are lots of benefits coming from reading books, such as health, psychological, creative, fun, and more! If you haven’t tried yet, maybe it is high time to start? 30 minutes a day, no computers, no Tv, no distraction. I bet you will be surprised by the effects.
Some questions for you:
- Do you like reading ?
- What was the last book that you read ?
- What kind of books do you like reading- if you read ?
- Do you agree with the statement that reading books makes you more creative and enables you to think differently and creatively?
Thank you for reading!
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Comments
Last time I read all books about Witcher after playing game. These books influence your imagination a lot. Generally I like fantasy books very much. Now I'm reading Art and visual perception by Rudolf Arnheim.
The last book I've read was 'The girl you lost' by Kathryn Croft'. It's a kind of thriller so I highly recommend it to people who like creepy and thrilling stories.
Usually when I read, I like to learn something from book so I like to read guides or biographies. But as an entertainment I like to read horrors and thrillers.
To be honest I have never wondered whether reading makes me more creative. For sure it makes people more educated and it develops vocabulary :)
I think that reading "expands horizons" - you know more points of view, you just know more, so you can tell more about everything.
For me, there is no doubt that reading for pleasure makes you more creative, inspires you and stimulates your imagination. It can also help you to build up a good vocabulary. When I’m reading I’m really focused, I feel like I’m detached from reality, that’s probably why I don’t like reading books on the busses or trams. Regarding reading in a foreign language, usually I read in Polish, but when it comes to reading technical stuff I definitely prefer English publications.
Me too, fantasy books are great. :) The Witcher series is absolutely on one of the highest positions of "must-read" books list.
So you have that "non-focusable" problem that we mentioned above :D shame. After couple of years of training (3 years of traveling to high school for 45 minutes and 5 years to university for an hour) I trained my brain enough to be able to read literally anywhere. Matter of training I guess. Anyway, it is possible, believe me. :D
I think I'm actually broken in this regard, I'm sorry :).
I totally agree with the statement about benefits of reading books. I can't stress enough how reading books is important. Especially to my younger cousin. He never liked to read and his vocabulary is visibly lacking, add to it absence of proper grammar and you have a recipe for a disaster in communication and imagination. I don't blame him it's tough to resist so many (cheap) things modern culture has to offer (like video games, fb, etc.) but those are soulless things and boy oh boy books do have a soul.
Great article, thank you for posting and spreading awareness.
I also enjoy travel books, where the author describes his or her trips, experiences and stories, this relaxes me and also makes me want to see more places in my life. :-)
I totally agree that books makes us more creative and open minded.
Sorry but no. I'm spending way too much time in front of computer as my job requires that. I'm getting every second I can take for my eyes to take a rest and not focus them on one point of view. I like listening to audio-books very much - especially while driving.
That's a balanced way of reading for me.
2) What was the last book that you read ?
Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think
3) What kind of books do you like reading- if you read ?
Psychological, Computers.
4) Do you agree with the statement that reading books makes you more creative and enables you to think differently and creatively?
I would say it makes your mind open for very different view on the same subject. But good movie, theater, conversation may work in similar way.
But don't be afraid, to cheer you up I can admit that I often read short articles and publications to survive my daily commute ;)
Yes I do, but I don't always have time to read. When I was a child, my dad was reading to me a lot of books and Marvel's comics. It was the begginng of my reading adventure.
2) What was the last book that you read ?
"Zoo City". It is a 2010 science fiction novel by South African author Lauren Beukes
3) What kind of books do you like reading- if you read ?
Fantasy, Science Fiction books are my favourite. Also I like to read books about Psychology and Computer Science.
4) Do you agree with the statement that reading books makes you more creative and enables you to think differently and creatively?
Yes, I do agree with the statement, based on my own experiences.
I agree that reading books has advantage over reading blogs, news and articles. But, for example now, I haven't enough time to read something that is not related with my interests, mainly because it's hard to stop reading new book and it's hard to focus on something else after reading, so I decided to read more technical books instead of literary genre. Unfortunately it is hard to read fast because you have to think over EVERY word your read. But, from another side, it is even more useful then reading literary genre(IMHO) :)
I have a question: where is the source of this line:
'80% of people in the US didn’t read any book last year'?
On the source page I've found only this line with such percentage:
'Total percentage of U.S. families who did not buy a book this year'.
1)Yes, I do;
2)Last book I read was the third part of Timothy Zahn's "Thrawn trilogy";
3)Science Fiction, fantasy and computer science;
4)It depends on what kind of books you read, but generally yes.
Last book I red was so guide for programmers.
Mainly I prefer thrillers and books connected with programming, which improves my skills.
Yes that's true that books improves creativity. They force you to imagine that what you read.
Of course book improve your imagination as you see the action with your mind, not your eyes (as while watching TV). You have your image of characters, views. That's why I love reading fantasy books. What's interesting I love reading horrors, however I hate watching them (I have never watched a full horror - I am too scared. I tried twice. But I have read plenty of them). I can't even watch a movie that's based on a horror book I have already read - it's too scary for me.
Even though I've been learning English since I was five it's still difficult for me to read books in English. It takes me so much time to read one and it's almost impossible for me to focus even if I understand everything perfectly.
A lot of people undervalue fiction books, saying there is no sense in reading them because you can't learn anything new from them. I think, you don't need to learn every time you're reading, sometimes you need to relax and dream and explore some unreal world which really helps to open the mind and come up with new ideas.
Also, books help to train the good language. In could be your native language or foreign, it doesn't matter. I learnt Polish mostly because I was reading a lot in Polish. The same is with English. You can spend 30 minutes daily while going somewhere by bus to read a bit and to make a great favor for yourself by doing this.
Since childhood I've always read a lot of literature during year, maybe that's why I become creative person. I believe that books not only strengthen your creativity but also helps you to improvise, think quickly and freely change your plans or even they let you don't have a plan and don't be paniced, because you know that your mind always would manage to make up something.
Last books that I've read was Remigiusz Mróz trilogy.
Mostly I'm reading a crimes.
I absolutely agree with with the statement that reading books makes you more creative, reading makes you open minded, willing to discover world.
I hope that more people starts reading in Poland.
o books make us creative? Well that depends on the person reading the book. For some it will make them more creative and will improve their imagination and for some it will just be a mean to finally rest their head. Simple as that.