Feeling low in winter? The tired brain prefers to focus on winter’s woes and its body’s physical needs, rather than daily work and play.
Outside of work we process roughly 100,000 words every day, according to a 2011 study by neuroscientist David Levitt. He notes that Americans consume five times as much information as we did 25 years prior. This applies to the rest of the world.
Biologically, our brains need a long winter’s rest. The tired brain would prefer to attend to winter’s worries than to hammer away at words and numbers. Even our emotions are affected in winter. Light fades quickly, leaving the long dark nights that lower the levels of our serotonin, which is the mind’s neurotransmitter. This may result in mild symptoms of depression or the more serious Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), due to the shorter days and less daylight.
Our brains are still old-fashioned — our ancient brain is very much tied to the seasons despite the electricity of light and heat. Winters have become easier, but we only mask our inner signals to slow, rest and revue.
The best winter prescription is to simply hunker down at home.
Another prescription is to find the nearest neighbourhood library where you can relax and luxuriate in a feeling of coziness and contentment amidst the glow of a million words and pictures.
A library you say? Why not a better place to spend a blissful reverie, as you exchange smiles and share ideas in quiet whispers. Libraries have educated and entertained since the dawn of civilisation. They are the most important contributions ever made for the preservation of human culture.
Why not the greatest library of all, the renewal of Alexandria’s ancient library, reconstructed only two decades ago, in 2002. As dignified as it is noble, the splendour of the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina, sends shivers up and down the spine.
Your senses slowly come back to light a dozen candles to your drowsy brain, tired of overwork and overstimulation.
This will replace work with sweet pleasure; stimulation with gentle repose.
The most bewitching library is a winner.
Away from the distractions of the daily grind, the hypnotic waves of the Mediterranean shores beckon you to ancestral grandeur and glory — the remembrance of things past.
Walk to the New Library of Alexandria known as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and you find yourself back in time during the second and third centuries BC. You can imagine 100 scholars working, calculating, musing, promenading around the gardens, deep in thought.
Hero of Alexandria invented the first recorded steam engine. Apollonius of Rhodes, composed the epic poem of Jason and the Argonauts. Eratosthenes of Cyrene calculated the circumference of the earth, within one per cent of accuracy. He further suggested that the seas were connected, that Africa can be circumnavigated and that India could be reached by sailing westward from Spain. He even deduced the length of the year to 365 days and was the first to suggest adding a leap year every four years, an idea implemented centuries later.
The ancient library was founded by Ptolemy I in the third century BC. It stood for six centuries as a source of enlightenment to the nations of the civilised world.
The library housed advances studies in astronomy, geometry, medicine and even mechanics, astounding the scholars of today.
It is imperative to note that several diggings in the area where the library once stood, have revealed scientific and historical documents that would have resulted in the industrial revolution occurring 1,500 years earlier.
Such was the glory of the ancient Alexandria Library. It should have, could have, survived for many more thousands of years, but alas, it did not.
Two-thousand years later, like a phoenix rising from the ashes stands the modern Library of Alexandria, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Once again intellectuals gather to share their ideas, surrounded by eight million books and other inspirational works of yesterday and today.
The revival of the ancient library is a thing of beauty that will last forever. A unique historic venture, the library now ranks as one of the 20 best in the world as stunning as the fabulous “Biblioteca Angelica” in Rome.
Clear the cobwebs of winter clouds. If you have once visited the Alexandria Library, visit it again, visit it often. Within a library there will be light in the darkest night. You will walk softly in hushed tones, as you smile at the warm welcome of so many invisible friends.
The burnout of the brain can light a candle to the dominant mind in the brightly lit atmosphere of an amazing experience at a museum or a library.
The object of a great love affair between the book and the brain is everlasting — we hope. A passion for the word is found in teachings of the wise and the writings of a book.
Libraries have refugees from the mundane distractions of aimless thoughts, helping to light up the dazzling words of a book. Meet the great men and women of the ages, discover their thoughts and feelings, their ideas and discoveries.
Wake up your senses from winter’s hibernation. Defy the onset of sadness and depression. “Get thee to a” library.
Don’t wait for the flowers to bloom. The trees will be green again. The birds will sing their sweet songs again. And surely the sun will shine again.
“If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
“Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.”
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
* A version of this article appears in print in the 20 February, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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