There is more dynamic power to change things, to create things, to achieve things, with well wrought words than in any weapon of war, from a Crusader's sword, to Nagasaki.
Well wrought? We do not acquire that skill by memorizing word lists. We do not acquire an ear for the rhythm and music of language without becoming attuned to it. Seeing it. Hearing it.
Reading is the best... the only... true education. And not just in language, but in all subjects: History, the Arts, and, yes, the Sciences, too.
Teachers are facilitators; but we TEACH ourselves.
It doesn't matter what we read. Anything that captivates will do. It can be "trash" in some people's eyes; if it holds our attention and keeps us engrossed, we are absorbing words and their cadence. And, by osmosis, information.
And if one keeps reading, odd things happen.
Your IQ goes up (yes, trust me, it happens by as much as 20 or more points over a few years). Your discrimination about what you read becomes sharpened, more selective. Your tastes change, become more sophisticated.
Your speed of reading will increase, may double, even triple in some cases. Perhaps most exciting, you become a better writer, a better speaker. Sentences just fall nicely from your lips, or your keyboard, with a rich and appropriate vocabulary.
Read for fun. Read to relax. Read to lose yourself for a while from problems and anxieties. But READ.
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