Why Reading is Important

When you reach your 60's or 70's, you will find that you quite often can't remember a word that you want to use to express yourself.  If you have a large enough vocabulary, you can easily come up with a substitute word or words that will get your meaning across.  Arguably, the best way to increase your vocabulary is to read.  It's certainly the most enjoyable way to increase your vocabulary.  When you're reading and encounter a word you're not sure about, you don't necessarily have to stop reading and look it up to know what it means.  Just keep reading and quite often you can tell what the word's meaning is by the way it is used.  I call this "definition by context" and people who read a lot will automatically increase their vocabulary by reading more.  If you use a reading program like the Kindle Reader Program on a PC, all you have to do is highlight a word and its definition will appear.  Not only that, but you can search the whole document for every occurrence of the highlighted word or phrase.  So, if you want to have a large vocabulary and be able to easily communicate with others, READ, READ, READ.  The Kindle Reader Program is free and the books are free!!