What are you reading?

Noooo, I am just finishing book 13 and I don't want it to end, the characters feel like part of the family in much the same way as Helen Durrant's do, they get under the skin.
Fortunately, I have a new Greta Mulrooney to turn to..

Good news for readers ~
The great thing about reading fiction is it acts as a ‘whole brain’ workout. When researchers at Stanford University scanned the brains of people while they were reading Jane Austen, they found a dramatic increase in blood flow across the entire brain.

That’s because when we get immersed in a good book, our brains are busy imagining the settings, sounds, smells and tastes described, and this activates the many different areas of the brain that process these experiences in real life. Words such as ‘lavender’, ‘cinnamon’ and ‘soap’, for example, will elicit a response not only in the language-processing areas of our brains, but also in the areas devoted to dealing with smells.

Dr Raymond Mar, a neuroscientist at York University, says reading fiction can boost your empathy and interpersonal skills, because the parts of the brain that we use to understand stories overlap with the ones we use to understand other people. ‘Reading helps our brains get better at creating accurate models of real people and predicting what they might think, feel or do,’ he told me.

Studies show reading is also one of the best ways to escape from the pressures of modern life.

‘Anxiety is all about having attention focused inwardly,’ says Dr Mar, ‘but reading forces our focus on the words and the story, and this can take us out of our head and help us to relax.’

Research from Yale University found those who read for 30 minutes a day lived, on average, 23 months longer than those who didn’t.

Just started vol. 7 of the DI Nikki Galena series - another 7 still to read .
Also downloaded the last 2 in Jackman and Evans series.

It was World Book Day yesterday as most of you know and lots of people online were discussing their favourite books.

What book has defeated you? There must be something you've wanted - or felt obliged - to read but just couldn't get into it.

I'm afraid, for me, it was Tolkien's books. I just about made it to the end of The Hobbit but the rest are still gathering dust on a bookshelf. I much preferred Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy.

Has that just been made into a film or tv series kerri? I keep seeing adverts for it.

"Winning Chess Endings" by Yasser Seirawan.