There are many benefits of reading fiction. These benefits include improved neural connectivity in the brain, improved analytical skills, memory, and vocabulary. Many factors are involved to put these benefits into practice, but in a short answer, yes, reading fiction can make you smarter.

It’s about reading to develop those in-demand emotional skills. Research suggests that reading literary fiction is an effective way to enhance the brain’s ability to keep an open mind while processing information, a necessary skill for effective decision-making.

Fiction has the ability to help a person understand another person in a way that even television cannot. Fiction readers not only experience the protagonist’s point of view, but his innermost thoughts. Fiction also allows readers to experience new settings. Not just sights and sounds, but smells, tastes, and touches.

They found that differences in reading during their childhood years affected their later differences in intelligence, both verbal (such as vocabulary tests) and nonverbal (such as reasoning tests).

Here are some activities you can do to improve various areas of your intelligence, from reasoning and planning to problem-solving and more.

• Memory activities.
• Executive control activities.
• Visuospatial reasoning activities.
• Relational skills.
• Musical instruments.
• New languages.
• Frequent reading.
• Continued education.

Whether you are looking to improve yourself or learn something new, it’s possible to read a book in a single day. “Reading an entire book in a matter of hours may seem daunting, but it all comes down to simple math. The average adult reads around 200–400 words per minute.

Research shows that regular reading: improves brain connectivity. increases your vocabulary and comprehension. empowers you to empathize with other people.

50 to 80 wpm

Mental readers generally read at approximately 250 words per minute. Auditory readers read at approximately 450 words per minute. Visual readers read at approximately 700 words per minute. Proficient readers are able to read 280–350 wpm without compromising comprehension.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (1972) reported that 17-year-olds (about Grade 12) averaged about 190 words per minute. If students in Grades 12-16 read 190-300 wpm, on the average, how can 300 wpm be suggested as the minimum rate for a student reading a basal in Grade 7?

So let’s increase this to 30 minutes: 140 wpm X 30 = 4200 total words. 4200 words read / 200 words per page = 21 pages (a bit more reasonable amount for an assignment and activity)

20 minutes

It is often recommended that beginning readers spend 15 or 20 minutes reading each day (in addition to the reading they do at school). However, the amount of reading a child does is most important, not the amount of time she spends doing it.

Reading together 20 minutes every day teaches most school readiness skills (e.g., vocabulary, counting, colors, social skills, etc.).

Exposure to reading is important in developing vocabulary for fluency and comprehension. Students who scored 90% better than their peers on reading tests, read for more than 20 minutes a day – exposing them to 1.8 million words a year.

By age 2: Kids start recognizing some letters and can sing or say aloud the “ABC” song. By age 3: Kids may recognize about half the letters in the alphabet and start to connect letters to their sounds. (Like s makes the /s/ sound.) By age 4: Kids often know all the letters of the alphabet and their correct order.