How to add a couple of years to your life: read

If you’re looking for the magic bullet to extend your life, it’s right there in a book.

Any book.

According to Yale researchers, reading books on a regular basis adds a couple of years to your life.

In the study, researchers used three groups to identify this: non-readers, bookworms spending 3-1/2 hours per week reading, and those spending more than 3-1/2 hours reading.

Taking into consideration gender, race, education, wealth, marital status and depression, the study found that readers who spent more than 3-1/2 hours per week were over 20 percent more likely to live the longest.

So, there you go. No vitamins needed. Just a daily does of vowels, consonants and good punctuation.

You can read more about the study here: Bookworms live longer.

The question remains, though, who lives longer: those who write, or those who don’t?

Your thoughts?

Photo link from Yale Magazine

Comments

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When I learned to write complete sentences I had one goal, to write a book. Somewhere in the youthful march through grade school, in some secret place long forgotten, is the book I started. I was seven-years old. I wrote prose, neatly in pencil, on blue lined notebook paper and added tiny illustrations at the top of my chapters. I drew my brother's birthday, bunny cake that celebrated his arrival at the terrible twos with frosting smeared onto his nose by my mother before she took his picture — with a film camera. I wrote about my uncle's visit from the distant country of Texas. I wrote about the way the world hurt and how small I felt. As I raced through school and ploughed down the writing path, I wrote stories and essays that high school teachers returned, scratched with red grammar corrections and tantalizing notes, such as, "This would make a good book." When I graduated college, my reward was to take a break, stop writing, and read what I wanted to

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Book Convos with Carol Doane

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