Personal anecdote time: I feel my cognitive abilities enhanced by reading. When you're paying attention to how the author conveys ideas, puts thought into words

Personal anecdote time: I feel my cognitive abilities enhanced by reading. When you're paying attention to how the author conveys ideas, puts thought into words, you can subconsciously retain that structure and put it to use for your own purposes. After going without reading any novels for an entire semester (college life without humanities classes ugh) and then voraciously consuming Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon I tangibly felt my vocabulary and capacity for articulated thought come easier.