Westerly Sun Column | Keep Your Brain Sharp at the Library

Over the last two months, I’ve made a dedicated effort to cut down on the amount of time I spend idly staring at screens. It’s all too easy to waste hours doomscrolling through Instagram, or, on a bad day, “watching” TV shows while simultaneously doomscrolling through Instagram. Instead, I’m focusing on doing more activities that (potentially) help improve my cognitive skills. Now, whether my brain is actually benefiting at all remains to be seen, but I definitely feel it’s a better use of the little spare time I have! If this strikes a chord with you, here are a few ways you can exercise your own brain at the library.

I’m a big fan of word puzzles, but I’m also cheap, and the free puzzles from the New York Times games app only get me so far. Thankfully, we have a variety of newspapers in our Old Main Reading Room, with crosswords that you can make a copy of and enjoy at your leisure. If you want (or, in my case, require) a little bit of assistance solving these, many of the online versions offer hints or check your answers as you go. You can access many of them for free on one of our public computers! If that’s not enough, the NYT is celebrating Will Shortz’s 30th anniversary by offering 30 of his past crosswords (1 per year) for free online. Unfortunately, it only lasts until Nov. 30, but that still gives you four whole days! How many can you solve in that time?

Puzzles are a great, quick way to exercise your mind, but they certainly aren’t the only way. With your library card, you can access several different educational databases that offer a huge selection of online courses on all manner of subjects. In 15 minutes on GCFGlobal, you can learn the basics of using formulas in Microsoft Excel, creating layers in Photoshop, or designing your holiday cards with Canva. If you want to get even more in-depth, I highly recommend Udemy, which has thousands of quality instructional videos on everything from learning Python to becoming a master of project management. Most lectures range from about 5 to 10 minutes in length, so you can chip away at it little by little, and before you know it you’ll have a whole new skillset!

If you want to get away from screens completely, there are — of course — plenty of books that can help. Acclaimed neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta has several books related to brain health, including “12 Weeks to a Sharper You: A Guided Program to Keep Sharp for Life” (2022). If you want quick and easy brain exercises, try “Keep Your Brain Alive” by Lawrence C. Katz and Manning Rubin, which includes over 80 “neurobic” exercises to work out your noggin. Finally, there’s the “Big Book of Brain Games” by Ivan Moscovich, which contains a little bit of everything: visual challenges, logic puzzles, riddles, illusions, and more. At the very least, you won’t be bored!

by Cassie Skobrak, Adult Services Librarian