Ten Reasons You Should Read Classic Books

 

1. Increases your vocabulary. With increased vocabulary you will raise your SAT and ACT scores, deliver more effective presentations, and easily show your intelligence.
2. Improve your social skills. A 2013 study showed that reading the classics, in contrast with formula fiction, leads to better social perception and emotional intelligence. Character-driven novels can even strengthen your own personal ethics, if you’re in the market for that sort of thing. Just make sure you’re clear on the distinction between good and bad characters.
3. Reading something of value.  The classics, and their typically universal themes, have stood the test of time; these are books in which we still find characters, experiences, emotions, and perspectives relevant today. Often an individual classic is the iconic work within a literary movement or the period in which the book was written. Usually, they are also somewhat challenging, so these are books you’ll be proud to be seen tackling.
4. Understand literary references. In college classes and throughout life people will be making references to classic literature. There are many cultural references that you will understand which will allow you to understand what is going around you.
5. Film versions. There are films on most of the classic books that will help you understand the text more completely. The films help to give the setting and faces to the characters.
6. Understand history and culture in context. Great works of literature mark every period of modern history and offer a more personal, accessible perspective on historical events and philosophies than most textbooks.
7. Enriching experience. Reading the classics can even be a form of therapy: a Liverpool University study showed that poetic language, in particular, stimulates the part of the brain linked to “autobiographical memory” and emotion.
8. Challenge the brain. Linguistic functions used by Shakespeare have been demonstrated to stretch the brain, and researchers believe that a thorough reading of Jane Austen is associated with a level of cognitive complexity beyond that involved in solving a difficult math problem.
9. Knowledge is power.  IQ is the best predictor for job performance, educational attainment, income, health, and longevity—and reading is still considered the best way to improve intelligence. By studying the works of the greatest literary minds in human history, we simultaneously build our knowledge of the world one book at a time.
10. Literature is human legacy. It is by definition an exploration of our own humanity, one of our most important tools of communication, and a force that both created and reflects our culture.

          Staff  Reporter- Allysen Brown