Speech 10 - The Magic Pill

Ladies and gentlemen,
Tonight I'd like to tell you about an incredible scientific breakthrough, I think will be of interest to all of you.
A team of researchers working in universities on three continents has developed a new pill with extraordinary properties.
One small daily dose has proved to have dramatic effect on test subjects.
Those who take it have a far greater chance of retaining their intelligence and reasoning power as they head into old age;
They are far more relaxed than their peers and they enjoy life more.
The creative right brains of people who take the pill are far more stimulated than the brains of those who don't.
What's more this pill has other extraordinary effects, never before seen in medication. It makes you smarter.
People who take it find their vocabulary and general knowledge both increase dramatically. And they are less likely to misinterpret instructions or be duped by false information.
Ladies and gentlemen, as members and guests of Balmain toastmasters I'm pleased to able to offer you tonight, the chance to try this incredible pill and experience for yourself its amazing effects.
I have a sample here for you to see and try for yourselves....
(show book)
Please excuse my subtefuge.
I was telling you the truth when I said there was a treatment available that produced all those wonderful health effects I mentioned.
But it's not true that it's a pill. It is READING.
Tonight I'll be urging you all to read more. And I'll be explaining how much better off you'll be if you do.
We all know what reading is. As members of a public speaking group we are able to read and write. At school most of us were required to read various books as part of the course work, be it Shakespeare or Lord of the Flies.
But for many of us as adults, reading is something we rarely do. Many people might browse through a blockbuster on holiday or keep a dusty paperback by the bed, reading a page or two when we think about it. It's not a part of life.
And it's easy to see why.
We live in an age with seemingly endless options for entertainment and stimulation.
Blockbusters films and DVDs seem to be released almost on a daily basis, each one offering more special effects and heart-racing action than the last.
When most of us were kids there were four or five television stations you could watch, less if you happened to be growing up in a regional area. Today there are literally dozens of channels, offering everything from wildlife documentaries to period dramas to shows devoted to funny videos.
The internet has surged in the past decade. While it can provide reading material, for many people it is treated more as another source of videos. YouTube, a website devoted to showing television clips and funny home movies is one of the most popular and talked about sites in the history of the net.
Then there are the demands of work. While machines have reduced physical labour, many of us are working longer hours than ever before.
Add to that family, sporting and other cultural commitments and it's a wonder anyone ever even glances at a book.
But we should persevere and read more for our own sakes.
The American journalist Jill Brennan in 2005 published a list of the seven benefits of reading that I think make a clear cut case.
The first benefit is that reading provides us an escape from day to day life. Picking up a novel is a ticket to another country, a new time or a totally different dimension. For the cost of a $2 second hand book you can travel to 17th century England or Mars in the 25th century.
Number two: Reading is instantly relaxing. Perhaps its the requirement that to read you must stay still, perhaps it's leaving the real world behind, but picking up a book and diving in has the ability to lower the heart rate and slow the breathing.
Number three: Reading relieves stress. We all have things on our minds as we go through life and reading can be a good circuit breaker to clear our minds. In the UK, health authorities have encouraged people suffering from anxiety to read more as a way of improving their overall wellbeing.
Fourthly reading stimulates the right side of your brain. This is the side thought responsible for creativity. It's thought this effect comes about because reading, more than say watching a video, stretches your imagination and forces you visualise characters, locations and emotions.
Fifthly, reading is just plain entertaining. Fiction provokes in people a varied ranges of emotional responses from joy to fear to anticipation. Brennan writes ''there is a world of emotion in every story and you, as the reader, get to be part of it.''
Sixthly reading is enjoyable. It is a deeply satisfying pursuit and curling up with a good book is one of the most enjoyable pursuits we can undertake by ourselves.
Finally reading is rejuvenating. It's a quick way to nourish your soul and gives us a chance to take some time out for ourselves.
I think you'll agree Brennan mounts a pretty convincing case for reading more.
But since she wrote her list in 2005, science has produced still more good reasons for reading.
A 2006 by Dr Anne E Cunningham at the University of California found readers experienced a whole array of positive health benefits.
Readers had far better vocabularies than non-readers; whether they were naturally bright or not, they on the whole knew more about the world than non-readers.
Importantly for those of us concerned about getting older and losing mental faculty, reading protected the mind. Cunningham found older people who read were much better at tests for cognitive ability than their peers who did not.
The great thing about reading is you can tailor what you read to suit your tastes.
If you don't like Shakespeare you don't have to read it. If you hate Peter Carey, don't read his books.
You can read action novels or pulp fiction romances. You can devour the classics or stick Australian thriller writer Mattew Reilly.
Pick the right book and you can experience life on a pirate ship or in a cotton plantation or on the first fleet or in Tokyo.
The benefits of reading are still there.
And there are so many great books.
Just a few I'd suggest would be Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird; the Sherlock Holmes series, E Annie Proulx's The Shipping News, anything by the great science fiction writers Jules Verne and HG Wells, Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe private detective series, Schindlers Ark by Tom Kenneally, Tim Winton's Cloudstreet.....
So in closing.
It can be hard to read in an age that is so demanding of our time.
But please, pick up a book and read more.
You'll be more relaxed, you'll have a better imagination and you'll know more about the world.
Your vocabulary will be better and you will protect your mind against ageing.
Reading really is a prescription for good health!