The phrase "besides reading" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to introduce an additional activity or consideration alongside reading.
Example: "Besides reading, I also enjoy writing and painting in my free time."
Alternatives: "in addition to reading" or "apart from reading".
"That being the only thing on my agenda today, besides reading the Wall Street Journal" — he had not heard about the boy's arrest because he never read the local paper, but he'd hesitated to say that to Sigrid — "and once again forgetting to bring home milk".
He also starts focusing on what he's good at -- and realizes he's smart in other ways besides reading.
So besides reading them the book, I take them out to Chinatown and have them experience all the things that I experienced growing up.
Welcome to the first full day of Carmageddon II! Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, told the L.A. Times that "the beach would be a good place to go...but how are people going to get there?" Looking for something to do on the Internet besides reading news stories?
In his childhood, says the 16th-century biographer and artist Giorgio Vasari, "besides reading and writing, he practiced much at the abacus". His father probably directed him toward painting.
Besides reading books how else can you prepare?
There was nothing to do besides read, write, reflect on God and drink.
For the next year I did little besides read books I'd always wanted to read and play poker in the local card rooms.
For the majority of that time, he was in solitary confinement, locked in a cell all day every day, with little to do besides read, sleep, mark the time until his next court date, and listen through a vent to his mentally ill neighbor talking to himself.
Do something –anything�� with the text besides just reading it.
But there are other reasons for reading besides 'alleviating loneliness'.
