Develop Your Social Skills: Read a Novel

Lillie, what can I say, I take great pride in beeing a bookworm. And I’ve been working hard on getting back to more fiction reading lately. Looks like a book a week might finally work for me without much effort
The books I read give me good ideas, show me something new to learn and by helping me to relax and take a break from daily craziness, they help me make better decisions.

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I can’t understand writers that DON’T read (grin). I mean, how is that possible??

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Hi Lillie - the research findings were interesting weren’t they? Like you, I’ve always been a bookworm. But lately, I’ve been reading far too much non-fiction. These results are a good excuse to grab myself a few novels that I’ve been wanting to read for ages.

I am also a real bookworm, but it makes me more anti-social. I even try to outrun people I know when I take the train in order to read But that might be me.

Olivier

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i was a bookworm before the using internet.it made me interworm
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This is really cool. Who would have thought?

I am so happy to hear this recent research. We homeschool our son who was diagnosed with a speech delay at 2.5. When it came time to teach him to read, I remember being told to start with sight words, that there was no way to “teach” him, he just had to memorize them. He struggled and when I saw it was the one aspect of learning that was causing tension in our home, I decided to put the cards away.

I never did get them back out, nor did we engage in further structured reading learning. Instead, I encouraged our son to just enjoy reading as an everyday part of life. Soon, he was reading signs to us, then information on the side of products…..everyone was worried but me. I thought, if he can read the important stuff, I’m happy right now.

It turns out my “read to enjoy it” lassez-faire attitude worked. At the age of 9, he is in the middle of a Tom Clancy book, and only took a break to read an X-Files novel in preparation for seeing the new movie yesterday. It amazes me that 5 years ago mere sight words brought him to tears, and now he asks if he can stay up a little late at bedtime to read Sam Fisher’s latest covert mission out loud to me. That his love of fiction is making him a little more social is the icing on the cake!

I am proud to be a bookworm as well. Shockingly, Majority of people don’t like us(Bookworms) because they think that we are some species from outside of this world. For me, it is blessing and such an addiction which will end with my life.

Outside of editing books and other documents, we here at Precise Edit have begun to weave a small group of book worms together to create a “club”, if you will. It wasn’t our initial intentions to begin a book club. One of us reads a great book and recommends it or lends it to another, and so on. Then, on occasional gatherings, we all have brief discussions of the books. Sometimes, a “non-member” will listen in on the discussions and will ask, “Hey, can I borrow that book?” The great thing that we’ve come to realize is how each person takes a piece of fiction and incorporates it into their lives or reflects on it differently from the next person. The world of fiction is a world of wonder, surprise, emotion, conflict, and most often than not, resolution. It’s a great world for a book worm to live in!

reading novels for developing social skills??

I doubt

reading novels is great thing but many times it tends to isolate you…

I have received this complain from my friends as I jus love to read novels

Ha! When I was in elementary school, I used to look forward to the days we’d take a trip to the library. Once we’d get there, I used to check out as many books as were permissible per my account…(can you tell I’m a bookworm?)

I love it, love it, love it! My husband and I are both readers - I read fiction and he reads nonfiction. I can’t wait to tease him about this . . .
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I also like to read a novel and now I know read a novel can develop social skills.Thank you

WOW what a statement. I feel better about reading so much now, especially the fiction I read.

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Could it be because fiction forces you to use your imagination? And that imagination entails development of sympathy and empathy for characters?

I have a feeling it is this which allows social skills to be more evident in fiction readers, and maybe less evident in those who are concerned more with facts and analyses than with emotion and the human struggle.

In my mind reading is a life/survival skill that helps in so many areas. I read a ton in Junior High and High School and I noticed that my friends who read a lot tended to do better on the ACT and SAT standardized tests than those who didn’t read much. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but even the smart kids who didn’t read outside of school didn’t do nearly as well as those who read for fun. Of course, I didn’t become much of a social butterfly until college when I stopped reading.

As a father of two ASD boys, I really appreciate your blog and the information you post!

So that’s why I’m so awesome with people!

Joking aside, I do think that fiction (good fiction) stimulates the mind and exposes the reader to far more social situations and role models.

We tend to associate and relate ourselves to tv or book characters.

The influence is remarkable and unmistakable.

Go read!

I just responded to a recent comment and see that all my replies on earlier comments on this post were lost when I moved my blog. There was a response to every comment.