do you believe that reading books exercises/enhances your imagination and creativity?

[beforetigers]

if your dreams are your imagination, then that must mean reading is using your imagination to tell a story - books create a mental image of what is going on in the story. So i have a question, does reading enhance your imagination? make your dreams more vivid? maybe even increase the chance of becoming lucid?

[ParadoxOwl]

Yes of course, reading books gets your imagination going, reading before bed should deffinetly give your dreams a boost. Not sure if it helps vividness of dreams though.

[KingYoshi]

I agree with jackc45 as far as the imagination is concerned. While you are reading, imagine all the scenery and characters from the book. If a book says, "They walked out into a meadow full of white flowers," don't just imagine those white flowers, but the soft breeze that causes these flowers to "wave" across the meadow as several bees fight the wind to collect pollen, the birds in the sky, etc. You want to imagine the entire scene to really get your imagination going. The author generally gives a decent description of a scene, but that is just meant to be the blueprint. The reader fills in the obscure details to their desire. The better the book, the easier this is to perform. When I read the Harry Potter series and the Lord of the Rings series, it was like I was watching the book in my head. I'd forget I was even reading as the scenes played out in my mind. I know there are better books out there, but I'm not much of a reader. This was just an example. Any creativity and imagination abilities you can practice and enhance will help with your dreaming. In all aspects of the dream, from vividness to quality of content. If you like to read, then I definitely suggest reading often as you practice your lucid dreaming.