What is a good way to improve your academic results, your personal life, and your chances of getting a job in the future? The answer? Reading every day! There are many many benefits you get from regular reading.

Reading develops your language and vocabulary. The more you read, the better you are at working out what new words mean. You also get a feeling for how language is used in interesting and creative ways, and how words are used correctly.

Reading makes you better at writing. You see how writers use language, and unconsciously get ideas that you then can use in your writing too. In fact the first piece of advice that many writers give to aspiring young writers is: READ and then READ MORE!

Research has also found that people who read are not only better at language – they are better at maths! Lots of maths is about using language. But also, reading is good for our brain functions. The brain has to work hard doing lots of things when you are reading – and so it strengthens our neural pathways. So reading is good for all kinds of learning, not only language.

Reading can also make you a more understanding person, especially if you read stories! When you read about other people’s lives, it makes you able to empathise with them and imagine what their lives and challenges are like. So even if you are very young, and you read about an old person and their loneliness, you become more aware of what some old people might be going through. Perhaps this is why researchers found that people who read regularly are three times more likely to be involved in charity or volunteer work than other people.

Reading also helps us to reflect on our own lives. We read about people and the choices they make, which helps us think about the choices we make, and what the consequences may be. So reading can actually help you achieve your life goals and overcome difficulties in your life.

There are countless other reasons to keep reading. It makes you more creative, it makes you a better listener, and studies have also shown that people who read spend more time at the gym or looking after themselves! Readers also get better jobs. And reading can help prevent the onset of Alzheimers disease, which is a disease of the brain that affects some old people.

So with all these reasons about the importance of reading – it’s time to pick up a book – or a magazine, or a comic, or a newspaper, or even a good story on a cellphone. What matters most is that you are reading.