I’m a sucker for a good book. To be honest, I’m not picky. Give me a good business book, mystery, thriller, romance novel, self-help book, etc. and I am content and good to go. In fact, just this morning, I received an email from SitePoint telling me that for every book I purchased, I could get a pdf download for free. I walked away $80 later with 2 hard copy books and 2 pdf copies and a desire to delve into each as deeply as I can for my own personal benefit and for the betterment of my business.
This got me thinking:
What have you been reading lately?
When was the last time you read a book?
Are you a wide reader?
In a gathering, you can tell who the wide readers are. Wide readers think and speak well. They win the admiration, respect, and good opinion of others.
Reading expands the mind. In fact, many people consider it as one of the satisfying pleasures of humans, for it involves physical as well as mental activities.
Reading is primarily a mental activity. After all, you read with your mind and use your imagination to paint the setting of the detective thriller you are reading. You use your mind to imagine the pain that the main character experiences as the story unfolds. You bring into play the different arguments and ideas brought up by the author in the self-help book you are holding. When reading a business book you try to see how each idea could possibly play out in your business life.
When you read, you develop a wide vocabulary. A skillful reader has a wide recognition vocabulary. You may not know exactly what every word means, but you will have a good general idea of the meaning of the sentence.
Reading makes you alert and curious about new words. Other readers develop the dictionary habit. Every time they come across a strange word, they try to figure out what it can possibly mean by the context. If they cannot do this, they refer to the dictionary.
Reading develops intellectual curiosity by exposing you to a variety of materials. You learn to read by reading books of increasing difficulty and variety. As in other forms of activity, you learn by actually doing.
Reading trains you to have an active and open mind. Merely grasping the writer’s idea is not enough. You must make a positive response to what you read. Be an active, not a passive, reader. Develop the habit of drawing your own conclusions, the habit of active thinking, of agreeing or disagreeing with the author. Keep your mind open, understand and weigh the ideas that you read. A practical part of active reading is the drawing of conclusions.
