Books to Lighten the Heart

Published in Health

In the age before tablets, mobile phones, computers and televisions, many people used to read, and reading was a social asset. Yes, it is so. We who are old enough remember that there was a time, not so long ago, when these wonders of modern living did not exist. Children brought up in this age of instant communication across continents often wonder what we did with our time. One thing was reading. Books, newspapers, journals, magazines and comics were the main sources of passing the time pleasurably and/or educationally.

For moving pictures there were films, or movies as the Americans have it. Silent at first, then with sound tracks. Going to the cinema was a social outing, far removed from just slipping a disc into the home entertainment system. Cinemas still exist, but have been undermined by video and more recently DVD players. In Dalmatia during the summer there are still some outdoor cinemas, but fewer and fewer each year, sadly, just as the once-popular drive-in movie theatres in America have declined.

Using free time wisely is one of the skills of living healthily. Rest and relaxation are important for reviving physical and mental energies. Of course, for a balanced life, there should be a combination of activities and interests to keep body and mind healthy. The human body is a mobile machine, and keeping still for long periods is not what it was designed for. If you have a job which involves sitting or standing through most of your working hours, exercise of some kind during your breaks or before or after work is a must. In the United Kingdom, where unemployment benefits have been higher than the lowest paid jobs, there are reports of families which have never worked, and who often spend most of the day in front of the television. Televisions and computers have helped to make people more sedentary from an early age, and also more isolated from each other.

The development of computer games and the widespread use of computers, tablets and smartphones for entertainment by children are a cause of concern to health workers. Radiation from mobile phones is a risk factor for brain tumours, cancers and genetic damage for all age groups, with children specially vulnerable. Also worrying is the effect on the eyes of watching a small screen at close range, and the development of hunched, crooked posture from holding a device close to the face. Not to mention the mindless violence which seems to be a part of many of the 'games'. Common sense dictates that all these devices should be used on a limited basis only. Unfortunately, as they are addictive, many youngsters spend long hours playing computer games rather than running about outside or doing something more positive.

Reading is a peaceful activity which develops and uses the imagination. Story telling is the first step in arousing a child's interest, and it has been shown that if a parent reads to a child, activates the child's interest in books, and engages the child in learning and social activities, that child will achieve higher intellectual and social/behaviour scores later on than others who have not had the same level of stimulation. (Research project, led by the Institute of Education, London University: Summary, The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE), page 4; detailed report, Tracking Pupil Mobility Over the Pre-School and Primary School Period, 2003 - 2008.)

If the reading habit is established at an early age, it will remain a lifelong pleasure. It is always a pleasure to read a good new book, and most readers have favourites which they return to from time to time. I have selected a rather random top-ten, although there are many more, so it is subject to change and is not an exclusive list. Laughter is one of the best natural therapies, and some of my favourite books invariably make me laugh a lot. For very light fun reading, I enjoy P.G.Wodehouse's Jeeves and Bertie Wooster series. The flimsy plots are carried by the perfectly drawn characters. For all the exaggerated caricatures, there is an echo of the British upper classes as they once were, when snobbery ruled and the gentry did not mix with the hoi polloi; when, for instance, manual workers were not allowed to join the 'gentlemen's' rowing clubs but had their own, called Thames Tradesmen RC; nor were they allowed across the hallowed threshold of the Leander club, but were given a tent to change in outside the building during the famous Henley regatta. Another very funny book is 'Around the World With Auntie Mame' by Patrick Dennis. More educational, but nonetheless extremely entertaining is 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' by Lynne Truss.

For happy memories of the days of amateur tennis before the game became a big-business circus, Gordon Forbes' 'A Handful of Summers' captures with a beautifully light touch the ups and downs of the international tournament circuit, and the particular difficulties of being a South African player in the days of Apartheid. I keep in touch with childhood memories through 'The Wind in the Willows', especially the lyrically evocative chapter seven, 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn'. Memories of Oxford are revitalized by Max Beerbohm's caustic fantasy satire 'Zuleika Dobson'. Helene Hanff's '84 Charing Cross Road' charts the charming and funny relationship between the author and an antiquarian bookseller from the days when Charing Cross Road in London was a treasure trove of intriguing and irresistible bookshops, which I loved to browse in even though I could not afford to buy much. Aidan Crawley's autobiography 'Leap Before You Look' is the interesting and inspiring memoir of a man of immense courage, humour and affection, who had about as rich a life as is possible during both war and peace, including playing his part in high-level British politics.

There are many books by expatriate Britishers who have shared their experiences of settling in other parts of Europe, notably France, Majorca, Spain and Italy. Annie Hawes' 'Extra Virgin - amongst the olive groves of Liguria' about setting up home in northwest Italy stands out for being an interesting story, superbly constructed and beautifully written. It is the first part of a trilogy, and the other two volumes are equally worthwhile. Very few people have written about moving to Croatia. The recent book 'Lavender, Dormice and a Donkey Named Mercedes' by Paul Bradbury, Dalmatia's best-known British blogger and internet journalist, is an extremely entertaining and vivid account of his transition from itinerant aid worker to family man in the small town of Jelsa on Hvar Island. His adventures are unusual, often creating a sense of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, but the main theme is a celebration of his new life embracing a very different culture from that of his native Manchester.

Now that independent bookshops have largely disappeared, there are fewer opportunities for browsing through a large stock of books in any country. The wonderful bookshops of Zagreb were among the first casualties of Capitalism and austerity following the Homeland War of 1991-95. It is heartening to learn that some bookshops have survived and are even thriving, but they are few and far between. In the UK, one successful initiative to keep quality book publishing alive is 'Slightly Foxed', a company which has received well-deserved high praise from Gaby Wood, Head of Books on the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper. Book reviews can help readers identify new books of interest, and the Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books and New York Review of Books are at the forefront of high-quality literary appraisals.

Technology has changed the shape of modern publishing, but books, including printed copies, will always have an important part to play in our lives. Books can be a source of comfort, relaxation, amusement, excitement, inspiration, information and education, so they should not be neglected. My advice to parents: help your children to enjoy reading, and introduce them to the nearest library as quickly as possible. That will be a great gift for life.

 

Note: the links for the books cited are to Amazon.co.uk, but all are also available on Amazon.com, other bookselling sites and of course through bookshops

© Vivian Grisogono 2013

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
You are here: Home health articles Books to Lighten the Heart

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Former Labour PM accused of ‘handing talking points’ to Tories and Reform after saying net zero strategy faltering

    Climate experts and politicians have criticised Tony Blair for claiming any strategy that relied on rapidly phasing out fossil fuels was “doomed to fail”.

    The former prime minister’s comments, published in a report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), prompted an internal row within Labour, with some accusing him of playing into the hands of a narrative used by rightwing parties to delay climate action.

    Continue reading...

  • Advertising Standards Authority says neither Lavazza UK nor Dualit’s product can be recycled at home

    Descriptions of coffee pods as “compostable eco capsules” were misleading as they could not be composted at home, the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled.

    The ASA has banned adverts by Lavazza UK and Dualit, which both made claims about the eco credentials of their coffee products.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Huge volumes of chicken muck’ entering rivers are harmful to fish and plants, campaigners argue at Cardiff high court

    Clean river campaigners have told a court that planning permission for a poultry megafarm in Shropshire is unlawful and should be overturned.

    In the high court in Cardiff on Wednesday, Dr Alison Caffyn argued that the council had failed to take into account all the environmental impacts of the industrial chicken units, which will house 230,000 birds at any one time, in particular the effects of spreading manure on land.

    Continue reading...

  • Corroboree frog belongs to 100m-year-old family of amphibians but is now found only in the puddles and peat bogs of Kosciuszko national park

    Scientists have sequenced the genome of the critically endangered southern corroboree frog – one of Australia’s most threatened amphibians – in hope that the information could be used to aid its recovery.

    The striking alpine frog, which has distinctive yellow and black markings, is so threatened by disease and the drying of its habitat due to climate change, that it is considered “functionally extinct”. The species survives in the temporary pools and peat bogs of Kosciuszko national park in New South Wales, with the help of zoo breeding and re-introduction programs.

    Continue reading...

  • The scheme, part of policy blitz for local elections, will encourage councils and police forces to work together

    Councils will be encouraged to work with police forces to seize and crush vehicles used by fly-tippers, in the latest phase of a government policy blitz before Thursday’s local elections.

    Under a scheme being led by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), new legislation will impose jail sentences of up to five years for people who illicitly transport waste in England.

    Continue reading...

  • Temperatures south Asians dread each year arrive early as experts talk of ever shorter transition to summer-like heat

    The summer conditions south Asian countries dread each year have arrived alarmingly early, and it’s only April. Much of India and Pakistan is already sweltering in heatwave conditions, in what scientists say is fast becoming the “new normal”.

    Temperatures in the region typically climb through May, peaking in June before the monsoon brings relief. But this year, the heat has come early. “As far as Asia and the Indian subcontinent are concerned, there was a quick transition from a short window of spring conditions to summer-like heat,” said GP Sharma, the meteorology president of Skymet, India’s leading private forecaster.

    Continue reading...

  • The plastic particles are everywhere – here’s what to know about what to avoid, whether they ever leave the body and what to do about plastic pollution

    Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic.

    Continue reading...

  • Joshua Bonnetta spent 8,760 hours recording a pine – then honed it down into a four-hour album full of creatures, cracking branches and quite possibly the sound of leaves growing

    What does a landscape sound like when it’s not being listened to? This philosophical question was a catalyst for film-maker and artist Joshua Bonnetta, who has distilled a year of recordings from a single tree in upstate New York – that’s 8,760 hours – into a four-hour album, The Pines. As Robert Macfarlane writes in his accompanying essay, The Pines is a reminder of the natural world’s “sheer, miraculous busyness”, its “froth of signals and noise”. It is rich with poetic meaning, and resonant amid the climate emergency.

    “It started as a personal thing,” Bonnetta explains from his studio in Munich, where he relocated from the US in 2022. For over 20 years he has made sonic records of places as private mementos, but recent experiments with long-form field recording led him to push himself “to document this place in the deepest way I could”. On a residency in the Outer Hebrides between 2017 and 2019, Bonnetta made the sound installation Brackish, a month-long continuous radio broadcast from a weather-resistant hydrophone – an underwater mic – by a loch. “I started to leave the recorder for a day or two, then it just got longer,” he says. “Amazing things happen when you’re not there to interfere … This allows you a different, very privileged window into the space.”

    Continue reading...

  • Climate experts say warming atmosphere from climate change could fuel severe freezing rain and ice storms like the one that hit the upper midwest last month

    Winter has been slow to release its icy grip from the upper midwest this year, and in northern Michigan, its effects will be keenly felt for months, perhaps years.

    A devastating ice storm that hit late last month has left an estimated 3m acres of trees snapped in half or damaged from the weight of up to an inch-and-a-half of ice across the northern part of lower Michigan.

    Continue reading...

  • Charity shops won’t take them. Councils incinerate them. Retailers dump them on the global south. We’re running out of ideas on how to deal with our used clothes – and the rag mountain just keeps growing

    In February, a threadbare polycotton bedsheet landed on the desk of Simon Roberts, CEO of Sainsbury’s. A “protest by post”, it had been sent by the Sheffield-based designer, maker and eco activist Wendy Ward. “I purchased this from Sainsbury’s at least 10 years ago,” she wrote in the accompanying letter. “It has served me well. However, I have no sustainable options available for what I should do with it.” Beyond repair, it was too damaged to donate to a charity shop, she explained. She couldn’t compost it as it had been blended with polyester, and she couldn’t repurpose it as cleaning cloths, as, being polycotton, it wasn’t absorbent. And, she added, “I don’t want to put it into a textile recycling collection as the likelihood is that it will be shipped overseas or incinerated and not recycled.” Ward qualified her assertions with links to respected sources – as a sustainable fashion PhD student, she is well informed on such matters.

    “The only action I can personally take,” she continued, “is to put it into my general waste bin. I don’t want to do this, as in Sheffield all general waste is incinerated as ‘energy recovery’. This isn’t a sustainable option as such processes have been shown to be as damaging to local air pollution as burning coal.” So, she concluded, “as Sainsbury’s is responsible for designing and manufacturing this product, making decisions to use polycotton with no consideration for what could be done once it reaches the end of its life, I have decided to return it to you. I would really love to hear what you decide to do with it.”

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds