“Unlike, say, skimming a page of headlines, reading a book (of any genre) forces your brain to think critically and make connections from one chapter to another, and to the outside world. When you make connections, so does your brain, literally forging new pathways between regions in all four lobes and both hemispheres. Over time, these neural networks can promote quicker thinking and may provide a greater defense against the worst effects of cognitive decay.” Readers Digest compiles the latest research about why you should read (via Book Riot).
Why Reading
Avid Bookshop
Do you live near Athens, GA? Come out tonight to support a newly opened indie bookstore: Avid Bookshop. Or, if you can’t make that, hit up tomorrow’s “Kids’ Day” at the same place. They have a Twitter account, too.
Sergio De La Pava on Boxing
Did Garth Risk Hallberg’s profile of Sergio De La Pava, enigmatic author of A Naked Singularity, whet your appetite for a taste of his writing? Well, check out this excerpt from the book over at The Classical.
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This Post Reads Like Mad Libs.
Roz Chast, whose cartoons have been mainstays in the New Yorker for quite some time, has teamed up with Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields to write a book about the 101 two-letter words allowed in Scrabble.
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Time Traveling in Octavia Butler’s ‘Kindred’
Octavia E. Butler's Kindred remains a touchstone of speculative fiction for its innovative use of time travel to reckon with slavery in the antebellum South.
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