Why do we read? What are the most important aspects of the writing?

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Why do we Read?
Why do we read? Reading transports us into worlds we would never see, introduces us to individuals we would never meet, and imparts in us emotions we may never otherwise feel. Through reading, we enter into another time zone. The setting, the characters, and the plot occupy us, and while we are in the reading process, we dwell in the others’ reality. Reading provides pleasure that is derived from escaping our repetitive, small, and limited lives, and places us in an exotic that exists elsewhere. Added to these, reading also provides an array of health benefits and researches conducted on various scientific platforms prove that reading is beneficial on several levels.
In a 2009 study conducted in the UK at the University of Sussex, Dr David Lewis, cognitive neuropsychologist, discovered that engaging in the reading process for a minimum of six minutes lowered stress levels by up to sixty-eight percent. A stronger effect compared to listening to music (sixty-one percent), drinking a cup of coffee or tea (fifty-four percent), and going for a walk (forty-two percent). As asserted by Dr David Lewis, the ability to be entirely distracted and immersed is what makes reading the optimal way to relieve stress (Lewis, np).
Reading, especially on a daily basis, is associated with longevity. This is according to a team of Yale researchers who followed 3635 participants older than fifty years, for twelve years. The study confirmed that individuals who read books had a twenty-three-month survival advantage compared to non-book readers who read magazines or newspapers (Bavishi et al., 47). The study also confirmed that subjects who engage in the reading process for more than three and a half hours were twenty-three percent less likely to die, and subjects who engaged in the reading process for less than three and a half hours were seventeen percent less likely to die (Bavishi et al., 47). It can be concluded from this study that book reading is associated with a prolonged lifespan
Reading increases our ability to break down information. In a 2013 study conducted by Minhea C. Moldoveanu, Keith Oatley, and Maja Djikic, the researchers tested the hypothesis that reading short fictional stories, compared to reading nonfictional stories, will lower the requirement for cognitive closure. The study enlisted one-hundred subjects who were given the option of either reading a short story or an essay (Djikic et al., 150). The participants’ cognitive closure was examined after reading. As hypothesized, participants in the essay category, when compared to those in the short story category experienced a drastic decline in cognitive closure. The result was especially strong for subjects who confirmed that they were customary readers (Djikic et al., 150). The results of this study suggest that generally, reading fictional literature could result in improved processes of breaking down information, including those of creativity (Djikic et al., 153).
People read because reading provides emotional transportation. With the intention of determining whether fictional reading influences empathy, P. Matthijs Bal and Martijn Veltkamp conducted a study which enlisted sixty-six Dutch participants to investigate whether fictional experiences can alter the reader’s empathy. Based on the transportation theory, the study concluded that when individuals read fictional stories, and they become emotionally transported into the narrative, their empathy increases (Bal & Martijn, np). The study used two experiments which determined that for individuals who read fictional narratives, empathy was influenced only when they were emotionally transported into the narrative. In both studies, no transportation resulted in decreased empathy. The study concluded that fiction has an effect on the reader’s empathy, but, only under the condition in which there was a high or low emotional transportation of the reader ((Bal & Martijn, np).
People read to improve their sleep patterns and increase their peace. Writer Stephanie Huston asserts that her thinking that she had insufficient time to incorporate book reading in her schedule was a lame excuse. Now that Stephanie Huston has made it a goal to read fifty books in a year, she reports that she has trad...