While Gen Next prefers to speak or send messages to curling up with a book, even the middle aged and older people are going easy on reading. The reason? Time pressures. Yet reading can help you switch off from your day-to-day life and feel relaxed, and for one in three that do read regularly, finishing a book gives the same sense of achievement as going to the gym. Reading for pleasure allows us to experience other worlds and roles in our imagination. Far from being a passive pursuit, as it is believed to be, it is a creative activity.
So how do you find more time for reading? Easy!
- Always carry a book with you to read in queues, while waiting for a bus, or to fill time when meetings start late.
- If you commute on the underground or train, read between stops.
- Read a few pages in bed before switching out the lights.
- Enrol with your local library – borrowing books gives you a set deadline in which to read them (though you can renew, of course).
- Join a local book club, in which you get to discuss a recently set book in a social environment.
- Read to young children at bedtime, and encourage older children to read by themselves.
- Nominate one family evening a week in which you all sit down to read rather than watching TV.
How can your reading habits influence your children?
- Children who know adults who read for pleasure understand that reading is a valuable and worthwhile activity.
- Children understand that reading is also a form of entertainment and are motivated to explore more.
- Children are more likely to continue reading even in their teenage years if the environment at home encourages bookreading in any form.
- Adults who enjoy leisure reading at home provide a language-rich environment to the children, which helps in personality-building.
- Good reading often encourages writing where the children can be motivated to express themselves in written words.
When it comes to leisure reading, e-books are making it easier and more convenient to carry a selection of reading material on the go. As we get more and more used to electronic reading the earlier bias against reading e-books seems to be going down gradually. E-readers are also encouraging for those with physical disabilities that make reading printed material difficult. Most e-readers have adjustable contrast, font sizes, and page widths among other factors that compensate for impaired vision and make printed content more accessible.
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