From an excellent write-up by Sandy Clarke in STAR2, The Star, 10 April 2016

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2. The best way to de-stress? Read a book
In an age of information overload, people who don’t read books might be forgiven for
asking why they’d want to heap even more pages of content onto the pile, particularly
when there are better ways to unwind and chill after a long day.
But before you reach for your headphones to listen to your favourite music, it’s worth
noting that a 2009 study carried out at Britain’s University of Sussex found that reading a
book is one of the most effective ways to de-stress. In fact, reading for relaxation is more
effective than listening to music, drinking a cup of tea, and even going for a walk.
Measuring heart rates and muscle tension, researchers discovered that participants began
to relax after just six minutes of reading.
Developing a reading habit has also been shown to keep the mind sharp well into old age,
and some research has suggested that reading might even stave off Alzheimer’s disease.
Go to tinyurl.com/h75a8fv and tell us about your reading habits
Tell us about your reading habits in the survey below.
In an article published in the online journal Neurology, a study of 294 people who died at
an average age of 89 found that those who engaged regularly in stimulating activities
such as reading experienced slower memory decline than those who didn’t exercise their
mind.
Even those who picked up reading later in life saw a 32% lower rate of mental decline
compared with those with average mental activity, while those who rarely exercised their
minds saw a decline in their mental faculties at a rate of 48% faster than the average age
group.
The benefits of developing a reading habit are difficult to overstate. On top of the
advantages already mentioned, reading can help people to sleep better, it improves
language proficiency, increases empathy and compassion, and reading self-help books
can help people combat depression, according to a study published in the journal PLOS
ONE.
Picking up a favourite book is also an endless source of joy and, unlike smartphones and
tablets, books never have to be charged and are always available to take readers on an
adventure to far-off lands where characters await to be met and new worlds are forever
ripe for exploration.
As Abraham Lincoln once said, “The things I want to know are in books. My best friend
is a man who will get me a book I ain’t read.”
If Lincoln was around today, he would likely find lots of friends in India, where people
spend more time reading books than anywhere else in the world. On average, Indians
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3. read for 10 hours 42 minutes every week. Americans, on the other hand, spend on
average half that amount of time reading books, coming in at 5 hours 42 minutes,
according to data from the World Culture Score Index.
The big readers following from India are Thailand (9 hours, 24 minutes), China (8 hours),
the Philippines (7 hours, 36 minutes), Egypt (7.5 hours) and the Czech Republic (7 hours,
24 minutes).
Coming in last on the list of 30 nations, South Koreans clocked a paltry 3 hours and 16
minutes with their noses buried in books.
And where is Malaysia on this list? Well, sad to say, we’re still officially at that
embarrassing “two books a year” point – that’s from the last National Literacy Survey
carried out in 2005. In 2014, a minister mentioned 10 to 12 books but there are no
statistics to back that up.
By Sandy Clarke
(STAR2, SUNDAY 10 April 2016)
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4. 1 Anna Karenina By Leo Tolstoy
2 Madam Bovary By Gustave Flaubert
3 War and Peace By Leo Tolstoy
4 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
By Mark Twain
5 Hamlet By William Shakespeare
4
…TIME
Movie: Anna Karenina (1935)
95 min. imdb rating: 7.1
Director: Clarence Brown
Stars: Greta Garbo, Fredric
March and Freddie
Bartholomew
Movie: Madanme Bovary (1949)
114 min. imdb rating: 7.0
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Stars: Jennifer Jones, James
Mason and Van Heflin
Movie: War and Peace (1956)
208 min. imdb rating: 6.7
Director: King Vidor
Stars: Audrey Hepburn,
Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer
Movie: The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
91 min. imdb rating:
6.9
Director: Richard
Thorpe
Stars: Mickey Rooney,
Movie: Hamlet
155 min. imdb rating:
7.9
Director: Laurence
Olivier
Stars: Laurence

5. 6 The Great Gatsby By Scott Fitzgerald
7 In Search Of Lost Time By Marcel Proust
8 The Stories of Anton Chekhov …
By Anton Checkhov
9 Middlemarch By George Eliot
10 Lolita By Vladimir Nabokov
5
Movie: The Great Gatsby
144 min. imdb rating:
6.2
Director: Jack Clayton
Stars: Robert Redford,
Mia Farrow and Bruce
Movie: Time Regained
158 min. imdb rating: 6.7
Director: Raoul Ruiz
Stars: Catherine Deneuve,
Emmanuelle Béart and Vincent
Perez
TV Mini - Series: Middlemarch
375 min. imdb rating: 7.9
Director: Anthony Page
Stars: Juliet Aubrey,
Douglas Hodge and
Robert Hardy
Movie: Lolita
152 min. imdb rating: 7.7
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: James Mason,
Shelley Winters and Sue
Lyon
By Oh Teik Bin & Steven Lee
For more info, check out: http://www.slideshare.net/ohteikbin/an-
essential-2-in1-companion

6. 6 The Great Gatsby By Scott Fitzgerald
7 In Search Of Lost Time By Marcel Proust
8 The Stories of Anton Chekhov …
By Anton Checkhov
9 Middlemarch By George Eliot
10 Lolita By Vladimir Nabokov
5
Movie: The Great Gatsby
144 min. imdb rating:
6.2
Director: Jack Clayton
Stars: Robert Redford,
Mia Farrow and Bruce
Movie: Time Regained
158 min. imdb rating: 6.7
Director: Raoul Ruiz
Stars: Catherine Deneuve,
Emmanuelle Béart and Vincent
Perez
TV Mini - Series: Middlemarch
375 min. imdb rating: 7.9
Director: Anthony Page
Stars: Juliet Aubrey,
Douglas Hodge and
Robert Hardy
Movie: Lolita
152 min. imdb rating: 7.7
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: James Mason,
Shelley Winters and Sue
Lyon
By Oh Teik Bin & Steven Lee
For more info, check out: http://www.slideshare.net/ohteikbin/an-
essential-2-in1-companion