The article is called "What Effect Reading Has On Our Minds" by Martha Brockenbrough. I found it on MSN's website under the Encarta section.
She stated research states that reading makes you smarter and the more reading you do, the better. She quotes from a paper called "What Reading Does for the Mind" by Anne E. Cunningham. Reading: 1) increases vocabulary more than talking or direct teaching, 2) substantially boosts general knowledge while decreasing the likelihood that misinformation will be absorbed, and 3) helps keep our memory and reasoning abilities intact as we age.
Researchers believe that reading "pours more words into your brain than conversation and television." Hmmmm. Let's discuss this for a minute or two. So having an indepth conversation with a friend, spouse, relative, or stranger you just met in a bar doesn't improve your word know-how? I mean, like, you know, like, this is totally a like, surprise, like I thought hangin' with your friends, dissin' other people, swearing every other word, and watching reality TV was, like, um, edumacational? I am so being sarcastic here. Movies and TV shows have some of the lamest dialogue. Even the sitcom comedy has reduced itself to a pull-my-finger humor level (an aside, what is with the recent skinny attractive wife and fat troll-like husband pairings). Granted, there are intelligent shows out there (Grey's Anatomy being one of them), but they are few and far between. I sat in a restaurant once and listened in (yes, I occasionally eavesdrop) to a conversation, if I can call it one, in the booth behind me. Between all the likes, you knows, and made up abbreviated words, the substance was practically nothing. I'm not advocating we all become converstional Einsteins, but cutting out the redundant crap would increase the quality of some conversations.
Another point the article made was that when we talk, we use a "small set of frequently occurring words" averaging about 400. Children's books have an average frequency of 627 words. Meaning... "the language in a children's book is likely to be more sophisticated than your average conversation." The recent restaurant conversation probably averaged a 10 word set.
It was found, the more TV people watched, the more general information questions they got wrong, but the more reading they did, the more they got right. "General intellectual ability didn't matter here -- the amount of reading vs. television did."
Results "have pointed toward the notion that reading a lot can compensate for the wear and tear time can put on a mind." Great news... my addition, I mean habit, means that I may fend off the debilitations of Alzheimer's or senile dementia. Good thing too, my genetic make-up doesn't look too positive. So I will read read read!
The paper also stated that if a child takes to reading early on and has a positive attitude about it, they will most likely be a reader when they are adults. Good to know, I shared that tidbit with my pregnant co-workers!
So in summary... Reading is good for you thus, my 12 bookshelves of books is not overboard and I do not have an unseemly addiction, I mean habit, to reading. YUM!
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