Putting the 'happy' back into content
In her New Yorker article about bibliotherapy, Ceridwen Dovey touches on the notion that reading can make you happier.
Reading has been shown to put our brains into a pleasurable trance-like state, similar to meditation, and it brings the same health benefits of deep relaxation and inner calm. Regular readers sleep better, have lower stress levels, higher self-esteem, and lower rates of depression than non-readers.
So, put down your phone and pick up a book (or at the very least your Kindle).
This week I read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and also watched 20 Feet From Stardom, which in their own way both tell the same story.
That story is that, no matter how talented you are, there are so many other factors that will determine whether the level of your success.
20 Feet From Stardom is a wonderful documentary about backing singers – specifically those who have quite remarkable voices – but who never quite made it.
Continue reading “Why talent isn’t enough”
Today was a case in point. Not only did I browse Clive James’ incredibly moving, recent anthology of poetry, Sentence Of Life (from which the poem on the right is taken), but I found time to read the first few pages of Laura Barnett’s feted novel The Versions Of Us, as well as The Mystery Of The Clockwork Sparrow by Katherine Woodfine.
