Top 10 Hobbies Reading: Beyond the Realm of Hobby

How pastimes have a great application of crafting meaning in life.

Calling reading a hobby does not capture its entire scope. Rather, it is a unique tool that promotes a person’s imagination, enables a person to de-stress, and has the capability to improve our writing capabilities. While reading may start as a pastime, it can have profound benefits that one may not realize at first.

To begin, reading offers a new avenue for catharsis. Catharsis is a mix of fear and pity according to Aristotle. Basically, readers can transcend beyond their living room couch into an emotional roller coaster. Whether it be a tragic love story, teeth-biting who-don-it, or tranquil poetry, reading offers a way to escape reality. I remember reading the Harry Potter book series throughout elementary and middle school. I was fascinated by the creates and it helped expand my imagination. Books can also teach valuable lessons. Using the Harry Potter example, I learned that working together as a team is important and that one should demonstrate courage in the face of challenge. Lessons on friendship, heartbreak, and caring for nature are other themes that are commonly explored. In fact, the books you choose to buy uphold the ideas of that author. Reading can also help you become a well informed citizen so you can actively participate in civic discussions. Without immersing yourself in scientific literature, magazines, online platforms, you are not able to learn anything new. Reading can take many different forms and is feasible to implement in your life. There are an expansive list of genres. You may enjoy reading nonfiction, science-fiction, fiction in general, biographies, or autobiographies. No matter the genre, you are immersing yourself in other’s writings. This will help you to understand other’s perspectives, potentially improving your ability to be a more respectful and educated person. Reading is also very versatile. If fantasy is not your cup of tea, the vast range of genres offer many avenues that fit many different interests. No matter if you are deeply invested in a drama book series or like the suspense of mystery novels, reading is an avenue to spark your creativity and imagination. How many of us have become so enveloped in a book that it gets to 2 a.m. and you ask yourself, how did I get here? Some may argue that this enables reading not only to be a cathartic activity, but also one that can relieve stress.

Moreover, reading has beneficial aspects for improving one’s ability to write. Think about it this way, you find yourself reading Shakespeare and then accidently say thou instead of the. In other words, vocabulary read are often reflected in your own writing. We learn unfamiliar words by reading. In fact, we had entire elementary school classes dedicated to reading to ensure that we understood what certain words meant as our young brains developed. As such, reading- especially at a young age- offers a multitude of benefits. It is often harder to learn and retain new words as we grow older; thus, reading at a young age is extremely important.

All in all, reading is much more important than being “just a hobby”. We dream, we explore, we create. It plays a fundamental role in our reading and writing skills along with critical thinking development in our childhood. Reading continues to play a prominent role in adulthood as it offers a way to de-stress and escape the reality of the world we live in.