What have you been reading lately? In a gathering, you can soon tell who the wide readers are, since frequent readers often think and speak well too. They win the admiration, respect, and fellowship of others. After all, reading expands the mind and many people consider it one of the most satisfying pleasures known to mankind, combining, as it does, mental agility and physical relaxation way above the scale offered by television.
The act of reading is mostly a mental activity, since you read with your mind and use your imagination to paint the storyline of the action thriller you are reading. You use your mind to imagine the pain that the characters in the story are experiencing as the plot unfolds; or you contemplate the various arguments and ideas theorized by the author in that self-help book you are reading.
Being able to read effectively helps you to develop (an extensive|a wide vocabulary through reading different styles of books. A skillful reader recognizes a wide range of vocabulary. The reader may not know exactly what every word means, but he/she will have a good idea of what the sentence means.
The act of reading makes you more alert and more interested in hitherto unknown words. Some readers even develop ‘the dictionary habit’, which means that every time they come across a strange word, they attempt to figure out what it possibly means by the context. If they are stumped, they refer to a dictionary.
Likewise, reading develops intellectual curiosity by exposing you to a variety of subjects. You learn to read by reading books of increasing difficulty and variety. As in other forms of education, you learn by actually doing and as you are reading you automatically learn about the subject matter of the book too!
Reading trains you to have an active and open mind. Merely grasping the writers 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. Always keep your mind open; understand and consider the ideas that you read. A practical part of active reading is the drawing of conclusions.
Now let me mention the phenomenon of speed reading. All of the above applies between three and ten times over, because speed readers can read that much faster than the average reader! Imagine that! - Being able to read, comprehend and remember all those books and articles. You would surely become well-read in your field much more rapidly than others. Just imagine how that would help you at work, in school or in university …
Let me share four primary rules for effective reading and better comprehension:
1) Try to read more and more every month. Remember that practice makes perfect. 2) Learn the habit of reading the main ideas, ie look for the subject and predicate - the principal ideas 3) Learn to read with focus and concentration. Good readers read with understanding. 4) Learn to budget your time. Experiment with your reading time. Try to read faster. Give yourself a time limit for the specific piece that you are reading.
Reading is a wonderfully stimulating mental activity. It expands your understanding and capability. You have so much to gain by discovering the joy of reading. So, go ahead and take down a book right this minute.