Underwater selfie! That’s me in the picture, snorkeling somewhere off the coast of Placencia, Belize. We still love this magical place almost three years in.
I’m going to start experimenting with some videos and some new topics. Sales of my book have dropped off because I basically know nothing about marketing. I’ve half heartedly tried selling on most social media, but it’s kind of sucking my brain dry when I’m over there all addicted to instagram, which by the way used to be pretty cool with the pictures, but now it seems everyone is trying to sell me something which is ironic because I want to sell them my book and yet I read the other day that books are done, finie, kaput, old news, and my brain almost exploded at the thought of no books, because I love books, real books, not kindle books. I love books so much that for my upcoming two month trip I’ve bought the behemoth of a book, Stalingrad, by Vasily Grossman, and will carry it around in true book form, not hidden away on a kindle, because where’s the social signaling in that? I mean carrying around a 1053 page book gets some notice, and comments, like when I was reading The Books of Jacob, by Olga Tokarczuk, on a trip and a man told me it was the biggest book he’d ever seen, but it only had 992 pages. Wait till people see this! But my husband is saying he’d like to read Stalingrad because I also picked up a copy of Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky, which is only 790 pages, and is that long enough to last the whole trip? I think not. If my book runs out then what? Kindle on my iPad? because I surely won’t find a book in English in Italy, except for maybe a murder mystery. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good murder, but those books always read super fast, and then boom! Back to no book. Sigh.
Seriously, I do love to read, and I like to encourage others to as well. Reading is essential to brain development whether your a child learning to read, or an adult keeping the cognitive skills in tact. Reading books helps us gain empathy for others, (try reading A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry, and not feel empathy for our fellow humans) and enhances critical thinking skills (might I suggest Unfreedom, by Timothy Snyder or Body, by Bill Bryson to charge up your thinking skills.) Of course there is also The Grief of Wisdom, by Jane Thompson Hasenmueller, which I hope you’ll consider, as it no doubt requires empathy and critical thinking skills.
You might have noticed the title of this blog, JANE GOes Unchained. I have spent a large part of my life being a people pleaser, and to be honest probably always will to an extent, but JANE GO is ready to reach in all directions and share my thoughts and ideas, my travel and my place of being, health and aging tips, and my endless love for books which I will forever be promoting. We all need to read, yes, even if it’s on a Kindle. And while a lot of people read on their phones these days, it’s important that substance and length is considered. Flitting around from this to that does not develop cognition and critical thinking. Nor is it likely, empathy. Books, fiction and nonfiction; in depth articles that make you ponder and wonder; these are essential to our brains, to our survival in a crazy world. Read any book and let me know what you chose and what you liked about it. I think I’ll be hanging out here more, so I hope you’ll come back and visit! Till next time…read!
Yours in reading,
Jane