Most of my friends hate reading for some reason. I just don't understand. Sure, computers tend to be much more entertaining sometimes, but that's not true for all books. People who don't like reading just read the wrong books. In my opinion, reading is the best thing you can be doing at your free time. Whether it is science-fiction or pure classic, reading will help you a lot in both reading comprehension and writing. Your vocabulary range will increase, along with your knowledge. Reading a book is like having a new experience. By reading a lot of books, you will gain a lot of wisdom from all these different experiences you've had from books.
My favorite books are The Five People You Meet in Heaven, The Alchemist, The First Phone Call from Heaven, The Giver, and Homecoming. They are all books that have left a strong impact on me. The first three books mainly helped me think about the meaning of life and what I wanted to do with my life, both lightly and deeply. However, The Giver was what made the biggest impact on my out of the five. It was the first classic book that I read, and I loved it. The little descriptions within the huge blocks of texts fascinated me, and thus began my collection of English books. Lastly, Homecoming was a book that taught me to be thankful for my fortunate life. In the book, Dicey, the main character, has to go through many hardships in order to get her siblings to her grandmother's house after their mom ran away from the lack of money. To be born into such a fortunate situation, I felt strongly that everyone should feel much more grateful with their parents.
It was in third grade when I had to move to Hawaii from Japan due to the leakage of radioactivity after the 2011 Japan Earthquake. Moving into a new country is NOT fun, let me assure you. Having to learn a new language from scratch, I tried everything from flashcards to reciting out the alphabet. However, the best thing that helped me was reading. By reading many kinds of books, I learned different phrases, words, and expressions that helped me develop my English knowledge to perfection in less than three years.
Now, I am not going to state directly that graphic novels are bad. In fact, I love them, and read them often. However, I will state that it will not do you much good except for deprivation of boredom. On the other hand, classic novels will help you increase your ability to think from different perspectives, and try and understand about different settings that a character can be in. It helps you greatly with your writing, by letting you have a great imagination to develop your thoughts out from.
Books covers can describe many things about a book. First, it will most likely describe the setting of the book. For example, the book Ember has a lightbulb on a dark background, showing us that the story takes place underground. Next, it might describe the storyline of a book along with its main character. For example, the book The Giver has an old man (the Giver) in black and white. Lastly, it might describe nothing at all. For example, Olive's Ocean has a cover with a teal-colored block of ice (as I perceive it as) with a person standing on top of it. Although the story had nothing to do with a block of ice, it instilled a warm feeling into my heart about the overall story.
In conclusion, you should read more books if you want to increase your reading comprehension and writing skills. Instead of just saying that you hate it, why don't you try it first? You will probably find, as I did, that you love it.