Posted on 08/29/2019 2:27:35 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Up until the last thirty years or so, reading was the most common form of entertainment. These days, technology has been steadily replacing the entertainment of reading a good book. According to a statistic from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Center for Educational Statistics, fewer than half (48 percent) of adult Americans read literature for pleasure.
Reading on a regular basis, however, provides amazing benefits to the health of our brain and our mental well-being.
Reading has the power to reduce stress, whereas other forms of media tend to increase stress. TV and the Internet require short bursts of attention and come with tons of distractions, noise, and fast-paced visuals...Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson, of the Mindlab at University of Sussex in London, conducted a study that demonstrated how reading impacts our stress response. Subjects’ stress levels and heart rates were increased through a variety of tests and exercises, and then they read for a mere six minutes. The results showed that reading reduced stress levels among participants by 68 percent, with some seeing stress levels lower than before they had started the experiment.
Reading also enhances our creativity. As we read about new concepts, ideas, and information, we engage our imagination and are more creative in the real world. Although a book or story may provide lengthy descriptions of characters, plots, and scenery, our imagination and creativity bring them to life in our minds. From a social standpoint, reading makes you a more informed and engaging person. No matter the genre you enjoy—novels, biographies, nonfiction, self-help, or any other—you always gain new knowledge and insight and something new to talk about with others.
(Excerpt) Read more at chroniclebooks.com ...
Freepers don’t even read articles before posting... how in the world do you expect us to read books?
I used to watch Real Genius while studying in college.
The movie had two studying montages...
When I was younger I felt obligated to finish a book that didn’t excite me. Now I have no guilt stopping. It’s rare, but it happens.
1. BUS ROUTE 222
2. I-76 to I-176 to Rte. 422
3. Flight into Reading Regional Airport
4. Shuttle bus from Philadelphia airport
5. A few years ago you could have taken the Reading Railroad
6. Canoe up the Schuylkill River
7. Take the Klein bus from NYC
8. Hop a freight car on the Harrisburg line operated by Norfolk Southern Railway
9. Strike out looking repeatedly or commit too many errors on the AAA Lehigh Valley IronPigs minor league team.
10. Consistently hit home runs or throw strikeouts for the Single-A Clearwater Threshers.
And a B-1 bomber popping popcorn!
LOL! You ain’t kiddin!
I keep waiting for the next tome from Yuri Testikov.
“Audible books on your phone. I love them!”
My favorite way to “read” right now, too. I’ve been using Audible for a year, maybe two.
Right now I’m listening to “Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World”.
Like a previous Ike history, “The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader”, it makes me suspect that Trump consciously uses Eisenhower as a model. Both of them masters of misdirection.
this was a worthwhile listen.
I have read thousands of books for the last 60 years. Way back then, I discovered the school library had great books! While everyone else was watching Bonanza, I was sailing the seas with Captain Blood, hunting treasure with Coronado’s Children, traveling the desert with Beau Geste, sinking French ships with Horatio Hornblower, blinding Cyclops with Odysseus, reading the “autobiography” of I Clausius and Claudius the God.
And it still goes on today.
I still have no problem shutting off the TV and computer, and reading.
I read every night. Always a book on my nightstand. I like novels and mysteries. Sometimes I read for hours if the book is captivating. Started this when I was in grade school and wasn’t allowed to read past bedtime. So I got a flashlight and pulled the covers over my head.
If you want to get back into it, find books that you really like. Mysteries, if well written, make you want to find out what happens next. And next.
Really, you’ll find a way to enjoy it again.
And the guy in the closet wound up being Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite!
all things come back eventually.
Guess what? My internet service went kaput on Sunday afternoon, the idiot service reps couldn't get here until Tuesday. and my bill just went up $12 per month. I am joyfully going to pay on time at their office in 10 days, and tell them where to shove their service. I can check my email on my phone and also at the library, which is just a block from the gym where I go 5 days a week.
And I really love to read. PLUS, I may actually get back to writing. I published two books by major houses some years back. And have two more manuscripts in work but I"m not working on them.... Now if my cat will only behave.
I’ve had five Kindles and gave them all away. Absolutely hated them. Give me a book every time. I read every night before bedd.
“The best way is to never stop.”
Yup. I have fallen away from reading for pleasure multiple times over the years, maybe 3 or 4 times for a couple of years. It just happened, but looking back I regret it. That is book time I will never get back now. But I am going on a 20 something year streak at this point, and I am never stopping now.
Freegards
Been too long since I saw it.
I was thinking about the biblical texts today. There is a directness about them that sets them apart from all other literature.
The development of the canon is an interesting subject in its own right. Anyway, it is a source of curiousity to me how I can tell the difference between a text from the Bible and most any other written source.
As far as i know, prior to Moses the content was transmitted orally. That, too, is fascinating.
After I got married, I bought my wife a television when she was pregnant with our first in the spring of ‘90. Got rid of the damned thing in March of ‘95.
I got a computer in ‘98, but I have been getting by with a phone and a cheap tablet that tethers to the phone for the last three years.
I do use book readers though, starting with a Sony PRS 505 in 2008.
I planned my wardrobe around reading, and now all of my shirts are fishing guide shirts which hold my book reader and phone in the breast pockets.
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