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7 unconventional reasons why you absolutely should be reading books


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7 Unconventional Reasons Why You Absolutely Should Be Reading Books - HuffPost

 

In a world of omnipresent screens, it can be easy to forget the simple pleasure of curling up with a good book. In fact, a recent HuffPost/YouGov poll of 1,000 U.S. adults found that 28 percent hadn't read one at all in the past year.

 

But the truth is that reading books can be more than entertainment (or a high school English assignment). A study released earlier this month suggests that enjoying literature might help strengthen your "mind-reading" abilities. The research,published in the journal Science, showed that reading literary works (though, interestingly, not popular fiction) cultivates a skill known as "theory of mind," whichNPR describes as the "ability to 'read' the thoughts and feelings of others."

 

And that's hardly the only way being a bookworm can boost your mind and well-being. Below, six more science-backed reasons to swap the remote for a novel.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Between each day's new NSA revelations and issues keeping my computers running, I'm about ready to just give it all up and go back to the simpler pre-Internet days of computer-free living. That'll give me a lot more time to read. :yes:

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Guest LilBambi

I don't think I would want to go that far.

 

I want to be able to have access to it all! I would not want to go totally back to pre-Internet times, just as I wouldn't want to go back to pre-indoor plumbing. ;)

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V.T. Eric Layton

I've thought about it at times. I believe I could manage just fine without a computer or the Internet. I'll stick around for a while longer, though. ;)

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V.T. Eric Layton

Hmm... may have to have a looksee at that Alchemist fellow. :yes:

 

OK... just put it on a hold at my local library. I'm 3rd on the list with 3 available copies in the system; shouldn't have to wait too long.

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I'm halfway through this at the moment.

And the Mountains Echoed is the third novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini.

It is a very engrossing read. :breakfast:

Might have to read that one. His first novel, The Kite Runner was excellent; the movie was OK too.

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Just take a year off and read some novels written by the greatest English novelist ever.

 

Pickwick Papers

Oliver Twist

Nicholas Nickleby

David Copperfield

Bleak House

Hard Times

A Tale of Two Cities — my personal favorite as the greatest novel ever written

Great Expectations

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V.T. Eric Layton

Just take a year off and read some novels written by the greatest English novelist ever.

 

Pickwick Papers

Oliver Twist

Nicholas Nickleby

David Copperfield

Bleak House

Hard Times

A Tale of Two Cities — my personal favorite as the greatest novel ever written

Great Expectations

 

I've read them all... and occasionally read them again from time to time.

 

Greatest English novelist? Myeh... matter of opinion. Great, yes. Greatest, I dunno' about that. :)

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Just take a year off and read some novels written by the greatest English novelist ever.

 

Pickwick Papers

Oliver Twist

Nicholas Nickleby

David Copperfield

Bleak House

Hard Times

A Tale of Two Cities — my personal favorite as the greatest novel ever written

Great Expectations

I liked all of those, but I would need a lot more than a year off to read them all in succession. Don't think that I could stomach that much Dickens in one marathon read.

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V.T. Eric Layton

No. Reading any author one after another is actually a negative reading experience for me. The author's habits and idiosyncrasies that are entertaining in one book become boring, expected drudgery when you read many consecutive books by an author in a short time period. I can do two max. After that, I have to take a break and read something from someone else.

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OK, throw in a Clancy novel every now and then.

From bad to worse!

Give me some Asimov, just not the entire Foundation series all at once.

Give me some classic A. C. Clarke, HAL, for the love of God.

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I wouldn't want to read a lot of Dickens stuff together but actually did read the Foundation series all together. I sometimes binge on authors. Might have started when I would borrow books from my grandmother, she always put them in sets of 6-8 covered in plastic so I would borrow them like that.

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You could alternate reading a Dickens novel, then a Vonnegut novel, then a Dickens novel, then a Vonnegut novel ...

 

Now your cooking with gas. :whistling:

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Guest LilBambi

I wouldn't want to read a lot of Dickens stuff together but actually did read the Foundation series all together. I sometimes binge on authors. Might have started when I would borrow books from my grandmother, she always put them in sets of 6-8 covered in plastic so I would borrow them like that.

 

Me too! I have read the Robot Novels so many times! They are like old friends! And the rest of the Foundation Series a few times over the years. I love them!

 

But I really do binge at times on authors and I have so many authors I love!

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I love all the books that abarbarian disliked! As well as those he liked....I just have a passion for books and reading!

 

Not averse to Dickens just that I prefer to watch the movies. We have tons of versions of the same Dickens stories over here. :shifty:

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I know I know these are not books in the conventional sense. I have read a couple of them in dead wood form though.

An it is a barnstormingly good eclectic deal. :breakfast:

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