Reading books can exercise your brain. Kids who started reading at an earlier age go on to perform better on certain intelligence tests, such as analyses of their vocabulary size. As one gets older, it might help slow down or even cease cognitive decline. Many Americans don't read frequently. It's time to reverse this trend to give your brain gray matter a good workout.
When you have some down time—you're waiting for a friend, sleeping lightly on the way from or to work, or doing a task that doesn't require your full attention—you can open your text instead of pulling up your favorite smartphone game. While paper is still the clear winner in the court of public opinion, science hasn't proven that physical books are better than digital ones.
Academic research has mostly focused on the ability to remember. A study took place in a laboratory setting： Students all read the same text, but some looked at the words on paper and others viewed an on-screen PDF. It turned out that no meaningful difference between the two media existed. As for audiobooks, they affected the brain gray matter somewhat differently.
Ultimately, if you hope to get a reading habit going, you shouldn't dismiss paper digital, or audio— Don't be afraid to change things up depending on the occasion.
A. Audiobooks still affect your thoughts and feelings.
B. Go with what makes the most sense for your needs.
C. Words on a page can improve the emotional intelligence.
D. This brings about a great debate: pages vs screens vs audio.
E. Keep a book, e-reader, or audiobook app on you as you go about the day.
F. Despite this, the overall book-reading time for Americans is on the decline.
G. However, they stimulated the brain just as deeply as black-and-white pages.
