Now Is a Great Time to Get That Holiday Book Shopping Underway

As you get ready to start making plans for the holidays and thinking about the things you’d like to do in your spare time, don’t forget to make room for reading. It’s an activity that is suitable for every age. Once a person has a love for it, they’ll enjoy that relationship forever. If you want to make a great impression on any of your friends and family this holiday season or to surprise them with something special for any reason, you can’t go wrong with books.

Everyone has such different tastes when it comes to books. Some like to read them when they are fresh off the press, others like to wait awhile until the newness has worn off. There are people who enjoy having a hard, tangible book in their hands and others who enjoy the technology that e-readers bring. No matter what everyone’s reading style and preferences are, respect their medium of preference. 

The best way to get them reading material that they would actually read and enjoy, make sure any books you get for them are eBooks if they love e-readers and hard copy books from your local Tennessee bookstore if they love hardcover and paperback books.

Once you’ve figured out what format of books to buy, it’s time for you to think about selection. With so many genres and interests to choose from, you could literally end up searching for a needle in a haystack for that perfect gift. One way that you can avoid missing the mark is to get everyone gift cards. 

Certificates and gift cards make it easy because you don’t have to be very specific. You can literally get everyone exactly what they want by giving them freedom to choose their own gift in a sense. Or, if you enjoy the idea of shopping around, you may want to ask the book clerks for a few suggestions or check the New York Best Sellers list.

For more holiday book shopping advice visit our blog. We also encourage you to stop by The Book Attic whenever you like to check out latest arrivals in DVDs, media, books and more.

Your Kids Can Eat Their Way to Better Reading Skills

Now that school is back in session, you may be wondering what you can do to improve your child’s ability to read so they’ll get better grades. Although learning is a year-round process, many children spend more time relaxing, playing and having fun during the summer months instead of brushing up on their reading skills.

According to a study posted in Food and Wine, healthy foods play an important role in your children’s reading ability. Although there are many other factors that can affect reading abilities, such as physical and mental health, socio-economic status and parental influence, the implications of the study only included diet.

It was found that children consistently scored lower when they regularly consumed high amounts of sugary foods and saturated fats. They scored higher on standardized academic tests and reading assessments when they maintained a diet high in fish, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and unsaturated fats. 

No matter what grades your children are in, it is never too late for them to adopt better-eating habits. It is also never too late for you as their parent to lead by example either. Although the study was done on children to show the correlation between diet and reading skills, imagine how beneficial maintaining a healthy diet can be for you.

The earlier you implement healthy changes to you kids diet, the higher the potential your children have to perform better on their tests and reading comprehension exams. Ou may already be aware of how challenging it can be to get your kids to eat certain healthy foods. However, it is your job as a parent to come up with ways to make any foods they don’t like more appealing.

While there is a lot of information available online, you may be surprised to learn that we have plenty of tested, tried and true recipe books for kids, parents and anyone who’s interested in improving their culinary expertise or simply wanting to experiment with different ways to prepare their foods.

Stop by The Book Attic today so you can browse our diverse cookbook selection and explore all of the other genres of interest we have to offer.

Books Are the Path to Enlightenment

You may be well informed about the many benefits of reading. But according to a recent study by researchers at Yale University, there is one benefit that you may be surprised to learn about. People who read tend to live longer than individuals who do not pick up a good book as often. Of course, in order to gain the benefit of a longer life, the reading material of choice should be something other than a magazine or newspaper. Reading isn’t exactly the fountain of youth. However, reading your favorite books more often can add almost two whole years to your life.

Struggling in School? Pick Up a Book!

In another study, a correlation was made between a person’s genetic background, their education and reading capabilities. With all of the issues plaguing the nation’s school systems, researchers at Florida State University decided to perform some research to determine if an individual’s learning ability and academic performance was influenced by genetics and their reading performance. It was found that students who had excellent reading abilities also had good grades in school, but usually when they lived and were instructed in a nurturing environment. The study also showed that students tended to perform poorly when they were instructed and lived in a less than ideal environment and that they also received lower grades.

While it is becoming more evident that reading can have a significant and positive impact on your life, you can’t take advantage of those benefits if you don’t make time to pick up a book to read very often. Even though the second study listed above was done on children, the results also have implications for adult students. If you are pursuing higher education, you should consider studying and reading your subjects in nurturing environments where learning is a priority like in a library.

For more interesting tidbits on how reading, books and your love of both can transform your world, stop on by The Book Attic! We’d love to see you, assist you with finding your next novel or personal literary pursuit. We also have other forms of entertainment like DVDs for you to browse through.