As years go on, the question of if books are worth reading anymore continues. With all the new technology coming up in the world nowadays, people tend to wonder about the usefulness of books. Not all this technology is a bad thing. Maybe now with all the new technology available to people; people will be able to read books at their fingertips. The real question is will people use this opportunity or will they discarded it because they believe reading books aren’t important anymore? 

Books were made with the purpose to inform people and to give people an escape from reality. Books can provide more for the readers than people may realize. For one, reading books can make you more empathize with people. When people read stories, they tend to go on a journey with the characters that goes in-depth about the inner lives of the characters. This leads the reader to be able to understand the feelings and beliefs of others. This ability is known as “theory of mind” which is a set of skills is essential for maintaining, building, and navigating social relationships. Reading books can not only help your relationship with others, but it can also help your relationship with yourself. When reading it allows you to escape from reality for a temporary period and become caught up with imaginary experiences of the characters inside the books. This allows you to take a break from anything that is going on in your life and just give yourself a break from life. This gives you a chance to take care of yourself and make sure that you are ok. 

Along with making your relationship with yourself and others better; reading books can help reduce your stress. Reading for 30 mins a day can reduce your stress levels, blood pressure, and heart rate. Cognitive neuropsychologist David Lewis told The Telegraph, “It really doesn’t matter what book you read, by losing yourself in a thoroughly engrossing book you can escape from the worries and stresses of the everyday world and spend a while exploring the domain of the author’s imagination.” There is also a study done by Sussex University in 2009 which found that reading reduces stress by as much as 68 percent. Not only is reading helping with your stress, but it also can help you sleep better at night. Reading online is not bad, but before you go to bed, choose a printed book. The reason behind this is that the light from the device can keep your brain up instead of helping you fall asleep.  

Some people may say that books aren’t worth reading anymore. They say that reading can make a person anti-social, because reading is a one-person activity. This would in return make meeting new people and making friends with people difficult, because the person does not know how to interact with others. Or that reading books is too expensive for people to get without it causing a dent in their wallet, making getting books not worth it. While these reasons are all valued, there are also solutions to all these problems. For example, if you think reading books are going to make you anti-social, find others who share the same interests in reading and create or join a book club. Or just put the book down for a little bit and go talk to other people. Spend some time on your other interests and if you don’t have any go out and try to develop some new ones. There is also a solution for buying books without breaking your bank account. If you can try to find a local book nook, they usually sell books at half the price of their original price tag. You can also find great discounts on books online and there are also a bunch of free apps with free books on there too. If all else fails, go to your public library and just check out some books for free. 

Overall, the question you should be asking yourself is not whether books are worth reading anymore, but if you are willing to use the resources around you to pick up a book and read it.  Books have been around for countless years, yet now with the advancements of technology, reading has become easier to access. When looking at the pros and cons of reading a book; the pros very much outweigh the cons. Reading a book is a privilege whether you use that privilege or not is totally up to you. Nevertheless, reading is important for not only expanding our knowledge and vocabulary but also expanding our creativity and giving us a way to break free from our everyday life and enter a world of imagination.