i.justrealized

Reading helps keep stress down:

Reading is the best way to relax and even six minutes can be enough to reduce the stress levels by more than two thirds or 68%.

New research by consultancy Mindlab International at the University of Sussex says reading works better and faster than other methods to calm frazzled nerves such as listening to music, going for a walk or settling down with a cup of tea.

Listening to music reduced the levels by 61 per cent, have a cup of tea of coffee lowered them by 54 per cent and taking a walk by 42 per cent. Playing video games brought them down by 21 per cent from their highest level but still left the volunteers with heart rates above their starting point. (Source: Marie Claire)

I’ve been reading quite a bit these couple of months. What I feel is that reading from a book helps reduce stress much more than reading from the screen.

If you don’t like reading books typically, you may get humor books just to have a laugh. I have a book with only funny pictures — that worked too. I probably flipped through hundreds of times, each time looking at around 10 pictures. That seems to keep my stress level down. Whoever said “laughing is the best medicine” might just be right.

In this short video Kris Madden shows you how to read faster. The trick, he says, is to repeatedly say “AEIOU” or “one, two, three, four,” as you read. This prevents you from vocalizing the written words with your larynx. Once you train yourself, you can stop uttering “AEIOU,” and you will be able to read much faster than before, or so he says. (from BoingBoing)

How to speed read

Also check out Derren Brown’s blog.

I love Borders. Love to be able to walk in and browse through. I have to admit that 90% of the time I come out empty handed or perhaps just with the Borders card member brochure.

I’m sorry that you aren’t doing well Borders. It’s all my fault.

Borders Inc ‘no longer for sale’

It posted a net quarterly loss of $175.4m (£113m), or $2.90 per share, as against $161.1m, or $2.74 per share, in the third quarter of last year.

But it said applying a range of restructuring measures in the past year will allow the company to stand on its own despite the downturn.

“We have smiles on our faces”, Borders chief executive George Jones said.

Like-for-like sales dropped 12.8% in Borders superstores, with revenue falling to $693m from $765m during the same quarter last year.

The news sent Borders share down 52% in after-hours trading.

In March, Borders said it had been evaluating a sale of its core business after facing increasing difficulties in accessing funds. (Source: BBC)

Books aren’t doing well these days probably because lesser people are reading these days. I used to see more people reading in trains. Singaporeans are rather busy people, few have the chance to read at home for leisure. Most read during commute time. It’s not easy to read while standing. Those sitting on chairs either have their ears plugged with earphones (blissfully unaware that they suppose to alight the previous stop sometimes) or sleeping (or perhaps pretending to sleep when there’re older folks in front of them).

Anyway, it’s just not good news for book lovers. Are physical stores impractical these days? Is the future going to be electronic books? I still much prefer touching paper. I’ll hate to see physical bookstores become a luxury of yesterday.