Do you mean to tell me that there are people who don’t love reading? How is that? I’m just kidding; I know some people don’t love reading. I actually live with three people who aren’t huge readers. My husband has been reading the same novel for 2 months now. My youngest daughter has been reading manga off and on all year, but she’s been more off than on. My oldest daughter, well, she’s never been a big reader. But what are the reasons I love reading? Let’s find out together, shall we?
Reason #1: To Learn Something New
It doesn’t seem to matter what I’m reading; I can find something new to learn from it. Obviously, nonfiction books are great for learning facts. But I’ve learned things from reading other kinds of books. For example, while reading The Silkworm and Career of Evil, both by Robert Galbraith, that there are some seriously sick and demented people in this world. Of course, I already knew that, but those books just seemed to emphasize that fact.
Reason #2: To See Someone Else’s Perspective
This one kind of ties into reason number 1, but I feel it needs to stand alone as well. I am a middle-aged (GASP! When did that happen?) white female from North America. I don’t know what other women in the world, or men for that matter, deal with. And reading diverse characters gives me that opportunity. This year I have had a glimpse at a variety of different lives: a young girl in Nigeria trying to find her voice, a Two-Spirit Indigiqueer person trying to find a way home for a funeral, an elderly man trying to live a life of adventure still, and a Taiwanese-Canadian woman trying to find her family’s story.
Reading diverse stories helps me become more empathetic towards my fellow human beings in this thing called life.
Reason #3: To See the World
This isn’t a new reason I’ve enjoyed reading. Traveling the world is something I’ve always wanted to do. But it is rather expensive. By reading books from various parts of the world, I can do some of that traveling. And even visit parts of the world that would not be places I would normally want to visit. So far this year, I have been to Venice, Prague, Paris, and various cities in the United States.
Reason #4: For Me Time
This feels like the most selfish reason, but as a wife and mom of two teenagers, me-time is something that I don’t usually have a lot of. While my family occasionally insists on talking to me when I have a book in front of me, in general, I get time to myself if I am reading. And that is something special. Even when my kids were younger, I tried to carve time into my schedule to read.
Reason #5: To Limit Time on Social Media
This reason also kind of ties into reason 4. If I’m bored, I tend to scroll through Facebook and Pinterest for hours on end. The only reason I don’t fall into the TikTok hole is that I don’t have the app on my phone. I have found that it negatively impacts my mental health if I spend too much time on social media.
Reason #6: My Mental Health
And if I have learned anything this past year, it’s that my mental health needs looking after. The past year has been a rough one for me, losing my job last August and then my dad in April. Reading has offered the escape from reality that I’ve needed to help me heal from both of those. Don’t get me wrong, there are still days when even reading doesn’t help, but it is a step in the right direction.
Reason #7: My Physical Health
I know this is a strange reason, but hear me out! I have recently started listening to audiobooks more often. It has helped me knock out my TBR some. But it has also helped make my walks less boring. Not that my walks have been boring, but I’ve noticed that I am more likely to walk longer if I listen to an audiobook. I’m not saying I’m walking for hours a day, but my walks are more like an hour-long instead of maybe 30 minutes. No, I’m not walking every day; my motivation ebbs and flows. But on the days I am walking, they are a bit brighter. And the audiobooks help with that.
Reason #8: Making Friends
I am the type of person who has always struggled to make friends. But reading seems to help me with that. I have found myself more active in book groups and bookish conversations lately. In the before times (pre-2020), I was a regular at my local library. So much so that one of the librarians knows me on sight and asks about my kids. Another would always suggest books for me when she saw me, and she didn’t make fun of me when I was excited about picking up a book I was waiting for. I may have squealed with delight when I got it off of the hold shelf! We were such regulars at the library that when we were house shopping, we managed to find one that a librarian was selling, and she agreed to our terms because she knew us.
These are 8 reasons that I love to read. What reasons do you love reading?
Thanks That Artsy Reader for the TTT topic this week!
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It’s so fun to see the world through books.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
Reading is a wonderful way to make new friends. 🙂
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-reasons-why-i-love-reading/
I purposely do not have Facebook on my Kindle so that I can read without distraction! It helps. I should delete all social media off my other devices, too. Imagine how much I could get read then 🙂
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Love and agree with all of these! Yes, it’s definitely better to be reading than spending too much time on social media.
Reading really does help us gain new perspectives. My TTT is off-topic this week. Please visit anyway?!
Such great reasons! I’m with you all the way on these. 😀
I can agree with so many of your reasons, and I definitely understand being well-known at the library. That’s so cool that you bought your house from your librarian! I’m glad to know that books have been such a benefit to you (like so many of us out here).
Limiting time on social media is such a great one!! I’m much less likely to mindlessly scroll when I have a book in front of me. And physical health is one I hadn’t thought of either! I’m definitely more motivated to get moving when I know I have a good audiobook to listen to while I do it. Great list!
I love seeing other perspectives too. Books are a fabulous way to do that. And seeing other places- virtual traveling. the me time is important, too. books are a great way to decompress!
That’s a neat library story too!
I totally agree with all your reasons. I was very lucky, both my children love to read. My husband was not a reader and I had to be careful how much I read, he felt neglected. Travel, Mental Health, enjoyment, and learning new things are some of my top reasons.
Great list. My husband takes forever to read a book as well. I’ve read five books so far while we are on vacation and he’s still on the same one. Making friends is one of my favorite reasons.
Thanks for sharing and for visiting my blog.
All of these are great reasons for reading!
Great reasons. I love your Reason #7: My Physical Health. I need to get out and walk more, I should do that with audiobooks.
Love all your reasons why you love reading!
Great list! I really like 6 and 7! I’ve started listening to audiobooks on my dog walks this year and it always makes me want to keep going when I’m at a good bit (and I get no complaints from the dog).
I totally get you hun, I have two young kids and reading is hard to fit in, and why must we give birth to non-readers? My kids seem to not like reading to spite me!! Also I totally love your physical health thing, I also am a big audio-book inhaler, I read so many books thanks to audible, and I am always moving when I listen to them. I am either going for a walk (which I don’t usually enjoy) or I am doing housework or cooking. I too find I can walk farther if I am listening to an audio book, in fact I won’t walk without them!!
Brilliant reasons. I think we can all agree there. When I started to love reading, it wasn’t to limit my time on social media, that still didn’t exist. I had my one “Facebook”, penfriends.
But yes, now it is a good reason to pick up a book.
Thanks for visiting my TTT earlier.
I agree with you about being able to see the world from someone else’s perspective! I’ve never liked reading about people who are like me so people able to read about people who aren’t like me is important.
Great list! Mental health is a great one. I didn’t think of that for my list, but it is so true.
I’ve recently discoverd the link between physical health and audiobooks too! Sometimes I do have to listen to them at 2x the speed, but hey, it really works! And reason #1, so very, very true — especially in the context of detective genre.
I’ve recently started listening to them at 1.25x. I think I tried to bump one book up to 1.5x and was bothered by the squeaky tone of voice.
Yes, very good for mental health!!
I love all your reasons! And I’m totally with you on physical health — I started listening to audiobooks while walking a few years ago, and they absolutely keep me motivated. If I’m listening to a great book, I’ll plan my whole day around when I can fit in a walk, just so I can get back to listening. 🙂 And I sympathize about living with non-readers — my daughter is a book junkie like me, but she’s an adult and out of the house. But my 18-year-old son has never read a book willingly in his entire life, and it makes me so sad!
Great reasons.
I do agree, it’s too easy to spend too long on social media and then I rarely feel better for it. Reading, for me, is often a much better use of time.
Great list! ‘Me time’ is an EXCELLENT reason to love to read.
Those are all great reasons! And I love that your reading helped you buy your house.
I really love this list. I’m so sorry for what you went through last year, it was a quite an impossible one. As much as it was hard, it did give means and courage to finally set up my book blog and with that I can truthfully say it changed my life and changed my relationship with reading so much.
I started my blog this year as well. It’s helped give me something to focus on. And hopefully, it will help me develop some new skills along the way.
I never thought about the whole limiting time on social media, but you’re so right! It’s way too easy for me to get downtime and suddenly find myself wasting half an hour doing absolutely nothing on Facebook, versus picking up a book instead. The book is definitely a better habit to have. xD
Great reasons to love reading. And I agree how could someone not love reading.
Limiting time on social media is such a good one. I do that too.
I’m all about those armchair adventures, too! Gotta’ love a good setting for a book. I also love what you say about social media and reading instead. That’s true! There’s good, yes, but nowadays social media is WAY different than it used to be. Thanks so much for visiting Finding Wonderland last week. 🙂
I agree with all of them. Great to see that we readers see reading from the same perspective *smile*
Me time is much needed and not selfish! 💜