I am not offended in the slightest when someone says I read too much, or I am a nerd, or I am a bookworm because its true and I am proud of it. Not only are books enjoyable to read, but reading is also an incredibly essential part of life.
         

Books most importantly help build on your brain and memory. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, regular reading is associated with a 35% reduction in the risk of dementia. Maryanne Wolf, the director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University, explains that your brain is like a muscle, and exercising it makes it stronger. "exercising your brain" improves your memory along with everything else.
      

Additionally, reading greatly enhances your creativity. Some may think creativity is no big deal, but it actually may get you a good job later in life. In fact, Oxford University did a big study and found out that the people who read as a teenager had much better and secure jobs than the people who read less.
       

One more reason books are significant is that they can be "therapeutic." Cristel Russell, a consumer behavior researcher at American University, points out that reading a book can be a way to relive past experiences and gain new perspective. So if you are going through something tough and the characters of your book go through something similar, it can give you insight. On top of that, reading can reduce stress levels up to 68%, according a study in 2009. Reading transports you and your worries into a different world so you don't have to care about the hardships of reality until later on. It's like an escape route.
       

All of these examples are just a few out of many facts that are proof to the great importance of reading. It is not just for entertainment or school purposes, but a huge part of our lives.