Building Bridges: The Social Benefits of Reading for Pleasure
Though reading is often done in solitude, it can be a surprisingly social activity. Reading can build bridges to understanding others, improving how we connect with people around us. It can help us understand our place in this world.
Reading enhances your social world by:
- Developing Your Capacity for Empathy: Engaging with diverse characters and their experiences in fiction can help you step into different perspectives and understand the thoughts and emotions of people whose lives are different from your own. This "theory of mind" directly translates to real-life emotional intelligence, making you a more compassionate individual.
- Bettering Your Communication Skills: By absorbing an expansive vocabulary and observing how authors structure arguments and dialogue, reading helps you articulate your own thoughts more clearly and effectively. This boost in communication skills can increase your confidence in both personal and professional settings.
- Offering Opportunities for Connection & Belonging: Reading can combat loneliness by creating shared experiences. Discussing favorite books in book clubs, sharing recommendations with friends or relating to characters' struggles can grow deep connections and build a sense of community.
- Boosting Social Mobility & Life Success: Studies suggest that whether a child reads for pleasure can be a stronger predictor of their academic success and social mobility later in life. It's even a stronger predictor than their parents' socioeconomic status. Reading helps reduce educational inequalities and offers a pathway to a better future.
The Library can help you get started reading with others! We host book discussions at several branches. Have a book club of your own? Check out one of our Book Club in a Bag kits to get several copies of your group's next read!
Check out these titles that have recently been added to our BCIAB collection! Vea estos títulos que se agregaron recientemente a nuestra colección BCIAB!
