Alvah's Books

It’s been a long time that I’ve written a review for my own site. Shame on me for not being the dutiful book reviewer, but truth be told I’ve been overwhelmed by my reading piles. In previous posts I wrote that I would no longer request books until I’ve completed the ones I have in my numerous to-be-read stacks, and I’m happy to report that I’ve been good on my word. However, there is the library and I’ve found several books that I had to read.

So what’s the problem you might want to know. As much as I love to read, it sometimes becomes a chore, especially writing the review. Writing is not an easy task for me. It takes me time to clearly articulate what I want to say. I ruminate about what I’ve read and sometimes it takes me a long time to say whether I liked a certain book or film. The problem,in this case, was once I finished one book, I started another one and that went on for a while, which left me with little time to contemplate the previous book and write a review. After a half dozen books read–all that needed their reviews–I realized that I managed to unintentionally overwhelm myself by doing too much (let’s not forget that I also write for a living too, have deadlines to meet, and I’m working on a novel).

After this long period of silence, I will get back to my regular reviewing schedule this week. Upcoming is Frank Bruni’s Born Round. For Steig Larsson fans, I will review the final book of the Millennium trilogy The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.

Stay tuned….

Why am I so calm and stress-free? Because I read a lot. According to new research as reported in the UK’s The Telegraph, reading is the best way to relax and reduce stress, even better than killing myself on the treadmill. Below are the first two paragraphs of the piece: 

The Telegraph

Reading ‘can help reduce stress’

Reading is the best way to relax and even six minutes can be enough to reduce the stress levels by more than two thirds, according to new research. 

And it works better and faster than other methods to calm frazzled nerves such as listening to music, going for a walk or settling down with a cup of tea, research found.

To read the entire article, please go to The Telegraph.