17 Reasons People Who Love To Read Are The Happiest People To Be Around

1. Thanks to years of consuming so many stories, a reader’s interior world is truly amazing—a sanctuary they can escape to whenever they please, which is a serious advantage when life gets tricky and the real world isn’t such a great place to be.

2. Readers also tend to be creative since they’ve been feeding their imaginations with narratives of all sorts for as long as they remember. Elasticity in thinking fosters success in many areas, professional and personal.

3. They’re extremely good at being alone, too. Or, rather, they never actually feel alone because they’re always accompanied by the stories, characters, and themes floating around in their minds—a wealth of material they can ponder anywhere, at any time.

4. It’s not that they don’t enjoy others’ company, but that they can entertain themselves so easily just by revisiting all the other worlds they’ve come to know on the page, fictional or not.

5. In fact, they practically never get bored because during even the most dull circumstances (a school lecture, or a work meeting that runs on for too long) they can let their minds wander.

6. If a train takes fifteen more minutes to arrive than it’s supposed to, they don’t get angry about the delay. They just reach for the paperback in their back pocket or the hardcover in their handbag.

7. If there’s a book to read, they have something to do with every single spare moment, so each is welcomed. A voracious reader is far less likely to grow frustrated when forced to wait at the doctor’s office or in line at the grocery store. Instead, they take such things in stride, marveling at how upset others get over the prospect of wasting time.

8. Unlike most, they actually adore their daily commute to and from the office, viewing it as an opportunity to dive back into whatever title they’re currently immersed in. There’s something wonderful about starting and ending each day in the same peaceful way.

9. They don’t even get mad when a friend or a colleague shows up late for a meeting or a dinner date because they always have words to keep them company. If, for whatever reason, they’ve forgotten to tote a book, they’ll read anything on hand—a newspaper, a magazine, or even a menu.

10. They view every second reading as a chance to learn something, always happy to absorb as much information as possible.

11. Armed with so much to say about so many different subject, they also make great guests at cocktail parties. All they have to do is draw on the vast knowledge they’ve acquired, accidentally or not, through reading so much.

12. They’re more likely to understand other people regardless of backgrounds because reading provides them with context about all kinds of places and people, imaginary and real.

13. They can connect with literally anyone—family members, friends, colleagues, and total strangers—just by speaking about a book at length.

14. Reading is a way to exercise one’s capacity for empathy, a phenomenon that isn’t lost on the typical book worm. Avid readers can’t help trying to see things from another’s perspective, even when that person disagrees with them vehemently.

15. So when they do get into a heated debate, they tend to fight cleaner and to find resolution faster than others might.

16. Maybe because their vocabularies are padded with all the words and phrases they’re constantly digesting, they sincerely enjoy articulating their thoughts to anyone who will listen.

17. Late at night, they always have a book on the bedside table to rescue them from sleeplessness, so they tend to be well rested, ready to tackle each new day.