Yesterday I posted about the benefits of reading to a child. That got me thinking about reading for your own benefit. It started something like this:

• It’s fun
• Keep yourself entertained, reduce boredom
• Exercise and strengthen your brain
• Expose yourself to your endless possibilities
• Become a life-long learner
• Strengthen analytic skills
• Stress reduction
• Improve ability to focus and concentrate
• Widen your horizons with travel books
• Broaden your vocabulary
• Develop empathy by learning to understand others
• Never run out of things to think about
• Develop language and writing skills
• Find answers to all kinds of questions, even those you mightn’t think of otherwise
• Never run out of topics of conversation
• Reading hard copy books can help you sleep
• Reading onscreen can help keep you awake
• Encourage others to read by example
• Build understanding and comprehension skills
• Develop interest in a wide variety of topics making you more interesting to others
• Knowledge and understanding make you a valuable person in all areas of life

How many more can you think of?