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Katelyn Wahl

Professor Calhoun

English 1201

14 April 2019

Why Adults Should Read

Reading is something all humans struggle with on a daily basis. Some are just

learning to read, some will never learn to read, some have read for years, and some have

stopped reading. This paper is going to focus on those who have stopped reading, the adults

specifically. As teenagers mature, they seem to run away from the things that they once did

as children, and this continues into adulthood, but without school, they lose the most vital

part of their lives: reading. It is understandable, but easy to fix. Adults should read because

it promotes creativity, can expand a person’s knowledge, and helps with relaxation.

Throughout school, children read, whether it be for fun or for their favorite English

or literature class. Many are not taught the importance, flaking out on certain chapters,

reading annotations online, or cheating off of their peer’s paper. It is true that many of the

books we read for classes are not as exciting as they would like, but that is not every book

in the world. There is a book for everyone, there is genres for everyone. It does not matter

when or where they read them, as long as they are doing so. The benefits to reading are

things adults do not normally think they possess or need for their day-to-day lives, and they

are entirely wrong.

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The first reason adults should read is that it promotes creativity. As Albert Einstein

once quoted, “For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand,

imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.” People thrive on creativity,

even if someone claims to not be the most creative person in the world, they can still

express it in different ways. Just because a person is not creative in an artistic sense does

not mean they cannot be creative in other ways. Being open minded can result in

creativiness, and reading can promote an open mind. According to the University of

Toronto, people who read fiction works “experienced less ‘cognitive closure’ compared

with counterparts who read nonfiction” (DesMarais). This means the people who read

something that jogged their creativity found themselves thinking with an open mind. Open-

mindedness can aid in creative thinking. This does not necessarily mean reading anything

can promote an open mind, or creativity. Newspapers, articles, anything beyond a short

story does not impact the creative mind as well. The University of Emory, during an

experiment similar to the one the University of Toronto conducted, discovered that

“reading fiction… [improved] the reader's imagination in a way that is similar to muscle

memory in sports” (Heavenridge). It shows how important it is for humans to read, and it

also shows how important it is for adults to continue this trend as they grow up and mature

from children.

Back to the importance of creativity in humans brought up at the beginning of the

previous paragraph; the way people perceive creativity is entirely wrong. Creativity does

not reside in those that create something artistic, whether it be writing a book, drawing a

painting, or creating a song. Something as important as creativity can be utilized and

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expressed anywhere in people’s daily lives, and that includes an office building.

“Companies are most interested in finding people who can think of new, better solutions”

(Petrone) meaning an “uncreative person”, or anyone else with an open mind can easily be

creative in a setting once thought it would not be used. If a person is constantly keeping

their mind closed, thinking they are not creative, then they could never use the brain given

to them. Thinking of these solutions requires creativity, regardless of how someone may

think. The human mind is capable of creativity, regardless of which side a person uses

more.

Something almost everyone likes in life is an expansion of knowledge, which also

goes hand in hand with imagination, but will be the focus of this second point. This is a

more obvious reason, much of the knowledge the average person has is based off of

something he or she read, or that the person who taught them has read or studied. The most

successful people are avid readers, as well as the most intelligent people. Many news

articles talk about the amount of billionaires who read often, almost as much as they work.

According to Business Insider, successful business men and women like Bill Gates, Warren

Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Elon Musk have all read books that

prepared, inspired, and provided the knowledge they have now to make them like this.

When Elon Musk was asked “how he learned to build rockets, he reportedly answers, ‘I

read books’” (Lebowitz). While fiction is mentioned in the previous point, this is where the

nonfiction lovers can come in. The books billionaires and millionaires often read are

nonfiction, which will be better at adding to their increasing knowledge. In a book by Tom

Corley, which explained how people became richer over time, it reads “rich people (annual
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income of $160,000 or more and a liquid net worth of $3.2 million-plus) read for self-

improvement, education, and success. Whereas poor people (annual income of $35,000 or

less and a liquid net worth of $5,000 or less) read primarily to be entertained” (Merle). If

someone is looking to gain knowledge, then reading nonfiction is definitely the way to go.

Also think of it in this way: there is fifty weeks in a year, a book a week does not

sound like the most impossible thing in the world, right? For billionaire and successful

businessman Bill Gates, it is not. Bill Gates “reads about 50 books a year” (Baer), and this

trend has gone on his entire life. According to MarketWatch, “American adults spend more

than eleven hours per day watching, reading, listening to or simply interacting with media”

(Fottrell), which was a study conducted by Nielsen, which is an American information, data

and measurement company. That’s nearly half the day for some adults, if not the majority.

In all those eleven hours, how can people not find time to read? Working two jobs is

understandable, but spending extra time on your phone can lead to increased stress. Getting

away from things with a book placed in a far off place can be far more stress relieving.

Thus leads into the third point, books help decrease stress. Everyone seeks

relaxation, whether it be in their bed, or on the beach of some foreign, tropical coast. While

things like the latter cannot be as reachable, they can be with the help of a book and a

sprinkle of imagination. According to writer Stephanie Hutson, who challenged herself to

read fifty books in one year, she began feeling “more peace and satisfaction and improved

sleep, while learning more than she thought possible” (DesMarias) after just two months.

As stated before, reading is a great step towards escaping a person’s current troubles, taking

them away from the world that stresses them out. A book based in a world with space
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pirates and a cute dog named pineapple can help you forget about that one customer who

might write a bad review, or forget the one dish you had left dirty. It was not just her that

conducted this little experiment, either; there was also a study conducted by the University

of Sussex in England that did one, and found that “only six minutes of reading was enough

of a distraction to reduce participants' stress levels by 68 percent” (DesMarias). This is a

considerable amount of stress relief in such a short time, time spent on the toilet or in the

car before work, possibly even in the breakroom on a lunch break. It was said that this

alone was “stronger than listening to music, drinking a cup of tea or coffee or taking a

walk” (DesMarias), all of which can be stimulants. This says a lot about reading, something

so many people pass over and use countless excuse over excuse to get out of.

Neil Gaiman once said “fiction can show you a different world” and what better

way to relieve stress than visit a completely different world while your own is in shambles?

Reading is a joy many can partake in, no matter what the age, and that’s the beauty of it. As

fun and exciting as television can be, the pictures of that one highschool sweetheart’s

wedding be tearing, and the mind numbing abilities lazing about on a couch and staring

blankly can be, reading has been proven time and time again to be beneficial in many

different ways. From childhood to adulthood, reading is something that we need. As our

world grows, relying on unconventional and non traditional methods, the increase of war

and depression, repeating the things our ancestors did and looking to ourselves before

others, we need to return to simpler times in at least one way. Reading has always been the

key to true happiness, to true relaxation and creativity, knowledge and understanding.
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Many may say reading is not worth it, that it can be too time consuming and

expensive. It is true that the price of books has increased: according to a printing press, “if

[a] book is… 375-page[s]... it’s reasonable to ask $16.95 for it. Most average-sized trade

paperback novels fall into the $13.95 to $17.95 price range” (Millcity Press). Oftentimes,

books can be more than this, especially if you shop at Barnes and Noble, but there are

other, easier methods to buy books. Traditional bookstores are always ready, your local

mom and pop shops with dirty and older books lining the shelves and a cup of coffee that

only costs a buck at the ready. Some people are unfortunate to not have those at the ready,

but there are still other options. Half Priced Books, a popular chainstore, always has books,

and is willing to buy them back if you return them in a good condition. There’s also online

stores if you can’t find the book you want: Amazon is a great place to find books, also

having their own marketplace where people resell their books in varying conditions for a

good price.

Returning to a previous counterargument: not having enough time in the day. Doing

the math, the average person sleeps eight hours a day, and works eight hours a day.

Together, that is sixteen out of twenty-four hours, leaving eight hours of free time to do

whatever you want, leaving out driving times, showering and the usual needs a human has.

This does not exclude breaks at work, though, or the little hours of sleep people sometimes

get. To summarize this idea: people have enough time in the day to read. Motivation is

often what people lack, as sad as it sounds. Adults like doing things simply, lazing around

in front of a television after a long day or scrolling on social media. Holding a book and

thinking of things is the last thing people often want to do after a long shift, but it can be
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the easiest way to forget that long and terrible shift. Revisit the stress relieving section of

the paper, the third and final reason as to why reading is an excellent thing to do.

Adults should read because it promotes creativity, can expand our knowledge, and

helps with relaxation. It promotes creativity through fiction, visiting other worlds and

expanding your worldview. It can expand our knowledge through nonfiction, showing us

things we wouldn’t normally learn in our day-to-day lives, and can inspire us with the

things we take from it. It helps with relaxation by taking us away from our troubles and

letting us explore lands that only exist on the white pages of a book. Reading is an

important thing for humans as children, and it’s just as important for adults.
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Works Cited

Baer, Drake. “Bill Gates Says Reading 50 Books a Year Gives Him a Huge Advantage.”

Business Insider, Business Insider, 8 Jan. 2016, www.businessinsider.com/why-bill-gates-

reads-50-books-a-year-2015-11.

Corley, Thomas C. Rich Habits: the Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals: Find out

How the Rich Get so Rich (the Secrets to Financial Success Revealed). Langdon Street

Press, 2009.

DesMarais, Christina. “Why Reading Books Should Be Your Priority, According to

Science.” Inc.com, Inc., 15 Mar. 2018, www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/why-

reading-books-should-be-your-priority-according-to-science.html.

DesMarais, Christina. “Why You Should Be Reading Books Every Day, According to

Science.” Inc.com, Inc., 24 Apr. 2018, www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/why-you-

should-be-reading-books-every-day-according-to-science.html.

Fottrell, Quentin. “People Spend Most of Their Waking Hours Staring at Screens.”

MarketWatch, 4 Aug. 2018, www.marketwatch.com/story/people-are-spending-most-

of-their-waking-hours-staring-at-screens-2018-08-01.

Heavenridge, Paul. “Why Read? Reason #6: Knowledge Is Power but Imagination Is More

Valuable.” Literacyworks, Literacyworks, 20 May 2015,

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www.literacyworks.org/news/2015/5/20/why-read-reason-6-knowledge-is-power-but-

imagination-is-more-valuable.

Millcity Printing Press. “How to Set the Retail Price of Your Book.” Set The Right Retail

Price to Sell Your Books Competitively, www.millcitypress.net/author-learning-

center/setting-retail-price.

Lebowitz, Shana. “Even as a Kid, Bill Gates Demonstrated This Super-Important Habit of

Successful People.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 7 Jan. 2016,

www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-habit-common-among-successful-people-2016-

1.

Petrone, Paul. “Why Creativity Is the Most Important Skill in the World.” LinkedIn

Learning, learning.linkedin.com/blog/top-skills/why-creativity-is-the-most-

important-skill-in-the-world.