Essex Books Presents Shelf Awareness: Never Get Old

Never Get Old

Age-old wisdom can easily become lost amid today's growing mountains of competing ideologies. In his 1915 address to students of the Froebel Educational Institute, Jewish scholar C.G. Montefiore stressed the importance of balancing an open, curious mind with one ready to test new fads and theories for durability--a pivotal habit for those who wish to stay young while growing old.

Pushkin Press' London Library series gives readers a chance to dip into knowledge from a century ago, and I'd say Life in a Bustle: Advice to Youth (which contains Montefiore's speech and two other turn-of-the-century pamphlets on health and well-being in a busy society) holds up superbly.

"Youth is said to be the season for hero-worship, but if we want to keep young, that worship must persist all through our lives," writes Montefiore, quick to clarify that he does not consider this an affected and shallow notion. "I mean the power to feel before the human mind and before human goodness a certain reverence, a certain awe." I speak from experience when I say that there are few things more satisfying than discovering people worth admiring, and telling them so.

I'd only add that stopping a moment to marvel at the non-human wonders that surround us, too, can bring a youthful jolt back into the day. Bloomsbury's Object Lessons series dwells on subjects many of us may take for granted: eggs, traffic, trees, earth. In the hands of contributing essayists like Nicole Walker, Paul Josephson, Matthew Battles, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Linda T. Elkins-Tanton, however, such commonalities leap from the doldrums with a rush of color.

At the risk of sounding like the Insane Clown Posse hit "Miracles," (which implores, "It ain't no way/ to ignore the miracles of every day"), the world is teeming with wonders. Stay curious. Stay astonished. Stay young.

Written by Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness