Reading books increases life expectancy

LOS ANGELES, CA - A new study has found something that'll increase your life expectancy- and you get to sit down while you’re doing it. Reading books! The study, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, found that people who read a book for 30 minutes a day- as opposed to not reading at all- lived longer. Maybe we should be taking our “workout” from the gym to the library.

On average, the book readers in the study lived a full 2 years longer than the non-readers.

And, no unfortunately, magazines and newspapers don't count the same way. The researchers suspect it's because books require deeper thinking- and that “cognitive benefit” increases your lifespan. Reading improves both your critical thinking skills and your emotional intelligence- two things that happen to be great for survival.

So for all the book lovers who've despaired that they'll never live long enough to read ALL THE BOOKS- it looks like you're automatically buying yourself a little more time. What are you going to read with all your extra time?