Studying, puzzles, and bodily exercise strengthen the thoughts in several methods.

That is an version of The Surprise Reader, a publication during which our editors advocate a set of tales to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Join right here to get it each Saturday morning.
Some individuals view studying as if it’s homework, making a listing of the books they intend to get via in a given month or 12 months. However maybe a greater method is to view studying as a psychological exercise. As Ilana Masad wrote lately, “There are lots of methods to advance your talent and capability as a reader: A few of us are naturally drawn to detailed nonfiction, and others should study to like it; some might have a style for meandering, multigenerational epics, whereas their buddies should prepare to construct up the eye span they want.”
As an alternative of deciding what number of books you’d prefer to learn this 12 months, it may be price contemplating which “muscle groups” you’d prefer to strengthen in your mind. As we speak’s publication explores studying, puzzles, and different types of train for the mind—together with the bodily variety.
On Psychological Exercises
The Most Controversial Sport on the Web
By Elaine Godfrey
Wyna Liu, the editor of the New York Occasions sport Connections, discusses her course of and the actual ire her puzzles encourage.
5 Books That Supply Readers Mental Train
By Ilana Masad
Every of those titles workout routines a unique form of studying muscle, in an effort to select the one that may push you most.
Six Books That Really feel Like Puzzles
By Ilana Masad
These titles signify an eclectic combine of assorted types and moods, however any certainly one of them can be precisely proper if you would like a brainteaser.
Nonetheless Curious?
- Why one neuroscientist began blasting his core: A brand new anatomical understanding of how motion controls the physique’s stress-response system (from 2016)
- Strolling for a greater mind: When a 70-year-old man walked the size of the USA in 1909, he sparked a dialog that in the end modified drugs’s concepts concerning the worth of train in previous age. (From 2014)
Different Diversions
P.S.

I lately requested readers to share a photograph of one thing that sparks their sense of awe on the planet. “I hooked up a macro lens to my telephone and a world opened up that I had by no means seen earlier than,” Robin H, 73, from Orinda, California, writes. “I took this photograph whereas admiring the gorgeous symmetry of this cactus on the UC Botanical Backyard. Once I received dwelling and checked out my photos I noticed there was a tiny aphid on the plant which had been invisible to the bare eye. It jogs my memory of the wonder and fragility of our world.”
I’ll proceed to characteristic your responses within the coming weeks.