Experienced this with my aunt. She loves reading books but due to lack of time, she could not pursue it. 3 years ago, she took it up again and now manages to finish one book in a week. Now, we find her able to recall incidents much clearly in detail.
Did you experience any such positive change due to reading?
It seems scientific studies have shown that reading leads to a neural workout. A gripping novel makes changes in the way the brain connects with different circuits. It helps to create a mental map of whatever is written when we read.
Although the changes may not be permanent but last longer than the act itself. Surprisingly, they found that the recall of a book’s plot after using an e-book was poorer than with traditional books. One of the reasons found was that the sense of touch is not engaged.
This quote from Sadh-guru sums it up: Reading exercises mind and insight in a completely different way. There is more profoundness to reading than watching than watching a cinema.
by free-skyblue-bird1
11 Comments
While reading books, we unleash our own imagination in our minds. When I read the Harry Potter books, I had a similar experience. Later, when I watched the movies, I felt that my imagination had created something even more magnificent than how it was portrayed on screen.
I agree and feel that reading has improved my mind, my mental health, plus I’ve lived a thousand lives in books. I do feel pity for people who won’t read (or at least listen to audiobooks), especially people who are suffering from mental health issues. It has really provided me with comfort and escape, essentially saved my sanity starting as soon as I could read.
Books are the only drug that makes you smarter. Glad I’m addicted to them instead of something else, lol
This is very interesting. So I’m a blind woman, and an avid reader. But I get most of my audiobooks as audio. Lots of stuff is not available in braille, and if it is, it’s huge and clunky and annoying. That said, though, I should start getting e-books because I do have a braille reader that would read electronic text without problems. And when I physically read, I retain so much more than if I just hear stuff. Is there a difference between active reading and passive listening with regard to how the brain is processing the information? I can’t see, but I always call myself a visual learner for this reason. I’m much more likely to be able to remember or memorize things if I physically interact with them.
I have some mental health issues that were exacerbated by various medications in the past couple of years. I began having several cognitive issues and my mental stamina declined a great deal. I ended up stopping meds and going through ketamine infusion treatment. Once I completed that, my mental health improved, but I was still struggling with cognition. I began reading books again, which I had not done in earnest for some time. It was difficult in the beginning. I would read sentences and passages many times, trying to comprehend. Sometimes paragraphs looked like word salad. I would get confused and some days I could not understand things, but the next day I might have no issue. I would forget characters, events, and some plot points. But I kept going and kept improving. Each time I met with my mental health practitioner, she would comment on how much sharper I sounded. I have now read about 18 or so books since this May. StoryGraph says it is around 7000 pages. Cognitive issues have improved tremendously and I count reading as my main hobby, now.
Anecdotal I’ll admit but things that gradually increased the memory of someone I know are, in order: binge watching certain tv series- Breaking Bad eventually. Reading graphic novels. Short stories. Entire books.
In this case the memory retention however is based on visuals – he retains things he’s watched most, then graphic novels. Reading words remains a struggle.
Equally so, I’ve found myself, through listening to audiobooks, actively increasing my ability to remember things I’ve learned through listening.
But regarding the sense of touch, I see what you mean. I either take notes or doodle when possible when listening to something because that aids my memory. I can’t read my own notes.
I read a lot of public domain books that I download onto my e-reader. Was talking to a friend recently about it and I told him, without realizing it, I liked using my ereader for some books because I’m able to increase the font size and have better accessibility. He was shocked and said he’d been having trouble finding books he liked in large print and had no idea changing font size was a thing.
I felt really dumb, was trying to read Anna Karenina for a while but the book I got half the words were faded or to tiny. I ended up downloading a digital copy and was able to get through it better. Also, I’ve started taking notes on some books or writing down observations while I read.
I don’t really do anything with them, but it’s nice to flip back to them to see what I thought. And my note taking has improved a lot, I learned to take down the essentials and then going back can recall with almost perfect clarity what it is I’m referencing.
I think this is very true.
When I started reading more, my memory seemed to improve.
What was even greater help was also learning a different language and learning how to read at a high level in that language.
It takes a lot more effort to be able to read novels in a foreign language, as novels use way more diverse words as compared to everyday speech in that language, so you have to learn a lot of words (usually over 10k+).
But once I become comfortable reading in my target language, I noticed overall my memory retention improved even more. I seemed less forgetful in my daily life.
Reading is also an important activity. *OSHO* is a charming name in the field of book reading. Most can not believe to know that he had read 1,50,000 arduous books and made a great library. All the have been read by Osho in his library.🤗❤🙏🌱
Reading is amazing, and i am so happy that i love to read.
However, most people around me do not read and they have excellent memory. So not sure how much reading helps with memory. It definitely helped with my mental health.
I think reading is a holy pill to increase cognitive function, but dont limit your self to your favorite genres , sometime you need to read things outside of your comfort zone , thats when brain plasticity happens. Challenge your brain all the time but with a balanced difficulty , try as hard as possible to imagine with all the senses.