At The Somerset we all love reading and at The Lord Somerset Clubhouse we have our very own library. In a recent resident survey, reading came out as one of the top two hobbies and interests in the village.
Marita’s next topic of discussion will be: ‘Read More, Live Longer…’ and here she explains more:
People often hit the gym, pounding away on the treadmill to keep their bodies at peak performance. More recently people have also begun joining brain gyms to flex their mental muscles. Websites like MyBrainTrainer.com offers a series of games and brain teasers for people who worry about their ticking clock.
But you do not need to go to such lengths to keep your memory sharp for the long haul ahead. Research suggests that you can just as well open a book – a chapter a day keeps the doctor away, or at least for those who read on a regular basis. Whether it is books, magazines newspapers or e-books, reading gives our brains a good workout because it requires mental energy. Writing can be likened to practice: the more we rehearse the perfect squat, the better our form becomes, tightening all the right muscles.
Yes, exercising the mind to keep it active is as important as maintaining physical fitness and strength in our senior years. Throughout our lives, our brain is responsible for keeping us happy, and as we get older, mental health is often a major part of being able to live independently. Staying young is in no small measure a state of mind.
But to achieve that, the mind needs to be challenged every day – although genes and luck may also play a role! Thankfully, exercising the mind can be fun and easy to do thanks to reading, writing, games and activities that can be enjoyed anywhere and by anyone.
- Crossword puzzles are one of the most popular word games in the world, but actually it has a very short history. It appears that the first crossword puzzle was published only a century ago! Arthur Wynne immigrated from Britain to America where he worked for a Sunday newspaper, New York World. He was asked to design a new game for the entertainment page and thus the first crossword was published on Sunday, 21 December 1913. Wynne had its first crossword puzzle based on an ancient game of Pompeii called “Magic Squares”.
- An earlier survey found that chess players now make up one of the largest communities in the world: 605 million adults play chess regularly – 12% of British people, 15% of Americans, 23% of Germans, 43% of Russians, and 70% of Indian people. The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1500 years, although the earliest origins are uncertain. It originated in India and spread to Persia. When the Arabs conquered Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Southern Europe. In Europe, chess evolved into roughly its current form in the 15th century.
The following library discussions/presentations are currently being planned:
- Logical thinking and reasoning – April 2020
- The art of sculpture – followed by (or combined with) an outing to art studio on Rustenberg Wine farm, Stellenbosch – May 2020
- The crisis of democracy – June
To read more about the lifestyle you can expect to find at The Somerset, click here.
