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15 Books about Happiness For All, Forever
Happy International Day of Happiness! Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, let’s remember that today is the International Day of Happiness. The theme this year is ‘Happiness For All, Forever’. According to the United Nations World Happiness Report, which was published today, Finland is the happiest place (for the third consecutive year). The Finnish capital, Helsinki, is the happiest city in the world. Perhaps it is obvious that I enjoy reading articles and books about happiness. In fact, informed by such books about happiness, as well as my professional background as a Psychiatrist, I have previously written extensively about mental well-being and happiness. I have often considered happiness from different perspectives, including…
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The 7 Secrets of Happiness: An Optimist’s Journey
What an awesome title for a book! Happiness, optimism, and a journey, all in the same sentence. In the introduction, Gyles Brandreth writes about his personal journey looking for happiness, a journey that took him to different places around the world where he met some very remarkable people: the Pope’s exorcist at the Vatican, Buddhist monks in Cambodia, Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa, Quentin Crisp in New York, and the Queen of Denmark in Copenhagen. But it was in Dublin where he discovered the 7 secrets of happiness thanks to the late Dr Anthony Clare, Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College, widely known for his radio interviews: In the…
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Is the coronavirus good for our mental health?
Last week, I reflected on the fact that the media (at least in the UK) appear to have forgotten about Brexit and have focused almost exclusively on the coronavirus pandemic. Of course, such a pandemic is worth reporting on the news. However, it appears to have given rise to panic and mass hysteria; for instance, as the coronavirus spreads to the UK, the toilet roll and hand wash demand has risen to unprecedented levels, with the supermarkets notoriously running out of supplies. I personally largely blame the media for this over-reaction. Today, as the number of UK cases of coronavirus has risen to 319 and the number of fatalities to…
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COVID-19: a new case of mass hysteria
Up until the 31st of January 2020, I would wake up every morning to news about the –then-upcoming Brexit. Sadly, this is now a done deal. A bloody done deal, as half of the Brits would say. I live in London, England, and I listen to the news on BBC Radio 3 (in case you’re wondering, BBC stands for British Broadcasting Corporation, and Radio 3 is one of the many radio stations operated by the BBC, but mostly playing classical music). Come February, and most mornings I have been waking up to updates on the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) first reported from Wuhan, China, on the 31st of…
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Best London bookstores, tsundoku & bibliotherapy
Today is the World Book Day. To mark the occasion, last year, I went back to ancient Greece and shared my reflections on ‘Aristotle’s Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life’, a book by Edith Hall. This year, however, I am going to discuss my personal relationship with books and reading, rather than focus on a specific book. I’m therefore going to stay home and simply visit some of my favorite London bookstores. I will then go to Japan to discuss the concept of tsundoku, as well as Marie Kondo’s tips on how to tidy up books. I will also visit Greece to discuss the concepts of bibliomania, bibliophilia,…
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My 10 (+1) favorite Asian restaurants in London
I kicked off this year with my recommendations for 5 (+1) Japanese novels to read in 2020, followed by my suggestions for 5 more books from, or about, Japan. Then, earlier this month, the South Korean film ‘Parasite’, directed by Bong Joon-ho, not only won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, but also the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. So, last week, I embarked on a cinematic journey to South Korea. Today, I am going back to London, but at the same time I’m staying in Asia. This sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? Well… being a foodie and a Londoner, I love…
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A cinematic journey to South Korea
A few days ago, the South Korean film Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho, not only won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film but also took home Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. This was a historic moment: Parasite is the first South Korean film to be nominated in these categories and the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It had also previously won the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. These remarkable achievements have unsurprisingly reignited my interest in South Korean cinema. For this reason, today I am embarking on a cinematic journey to South Korea. Here…
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Top 7 tips for an unforgettable weekend in Nantes
I recently visited my friend Marie, who lives in Nantes, a vibrant city in west France (not exactly on the coast, but not too far either). Although Marie has been living there for over ten years now, this was my first ever time in Nantes. It definitely won’t be the last though. I flew there from London on a Friday evening, and came back exactly 48 hours later, on Sunday evening. Based on this brief trip, I’m now sharing my top 7 tips for an unforgettable weekend in Nantes, the 6th most populous city in France (in case you’re wondering the largest one is Paris, followed by Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse,…
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A classical music journey to Great Britain
I recently came across ‘The Classical Music Map of Britain’ written by Richard Fawkes and originally published in 2010. In this book, Fawkes takes the reader on a classical music journey to Great Britain, visiting places with connections to classical music composers, both British and from abroad. The book is divided into five sections: England, London, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Within each of these five sections, the author visits a great number of places (houses, churches, museums) in alphabetical order. This makes it rather difficult for the reader to follow in Fawkes’s footsteps. I would have personally preferred it if the journey followed a geographical, or even thematic, order…
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A musical journey to France
Bonjour! I am currently in Nantes, the sixth-largest city in France. I am here to attend a classical music festival known as La Folle Journée. Held annually since 1995, this year it is dedicated to Beethoven and celebrates the 250th anniversary of his birth. It takes place over five days between the 29th of January and the 2nd of February 2020, and the program features around 250 classical music concerts. I would now like to take the opportunity to take you on a musical journey to France, a country with a rich musical tradition, and the birthplace of some of my favorite composers: Hector Berlioz (born in the Isère department in southeastern France; 11…