Alice’s Book Club – WINTER session of 2019

This Friday evening (on February 8’19), I was truly happy to be able to organize a teleconferenced gathering with some of my dear friends in order to cover the winter session of our social book club. Each of my guests were also invited to bring along a freshly made cup of herbal tea to enjoy as discussions would unfold. Joining the debate from the comfort of our living rooms made us all completely ignore the cold weather outside that we are still facing these days (a real winter with lots of snow).   

We started our evening together with a pleasant conversation and then we began the work….reading, commenting, analyzing, debating, sorting, voting, all together made each of us totally forget the time, but at the end we all were glad to choose a beautiful novel for our next book club session, which is scheduled to happen (in person) by the end of spring; we all are looking forward to that with much anticipation...it will be great! 

Needless to emphasize how delightful it is to team up with positive people, willing to focus on beautiful matters. Aside of that, I believe that no matter how much stress one might have at times with work or with the countless aspects of the daily life, it all slips away when you lose yourself in an activity that you really like.  

On the other hand, while at this page, I would like to quickly mention few valid points the scholars usually emphasize in their papers about the benefits of reading (in essence, why it helps to read at least a bit every day):
 - Reading books allow readers to gain better insights into human nature (you could gain interesting and helpful knowledge that never can be taken away from you)

- Readers become more sensitive to the emotions of other people, quality which seems to disappear in today’s world

- Good literature of any language improve and expand the comprehension skills; also, at the same time, by considering all the aspects involved, you could become even more versed with your critical and analytical thinking (the more skills you have, the better equipped you are to tackle any challenges that sometimes life might present). Additionally, a well written novel could 'transport' you to different places, while an engaging article might distract or keep you in the present moment allowing relaxation to occur. 

- A book always stimulates the brain (amazingly enough, through reading new brain pathways are created and the existing ones become even stronger, facts that assist with the short-term memory recalls as well as mood stabilization).  
So, once again dear friends, please be kindly reminded that the journey of a life time starts with the turning of a page. 

Until our paths will meet again on this wavelength, my best wishes to each of you for a peaceful rest of winter.

Alice

“The reading of all good books is like having a conversation with the finest minds of the past centuries.” (Descartes)