What I'm Reading Now

The Blue Zones, by Dan Buettner

Ok, so I'm not reading this RIGHT now, but I did just finish it. It was a quick read, and I didn't take time to blog in the middle.

A Blue Zone is an area of the world where people live to be 100 and up at an uncommon rate. And they are a healthy, active 100. Dan Buettner began studying Blue Zones for National Geographic as part of a study on longevity and has now started a whole community of sorts based on his findings. He has a website, resources, and yes, a book.

The book talks about the original four Blue Zones that were studied as part of the National Geographic project: Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Lorma Linda, California; and a region in Costa Rica whose name is escaping me right now. The purpose of the book is to analyze the lifestyle of the people in these areas and see what lessons can be learned from the way they live.

The biggest ones were obvious: eat a plant-based diet and stay active.

The California Blue Zone is made up of Seventh Day Adventists who don't eat meat because they don't believe it is Biblical. The others aren't strictly vegetarian, necessarily, they just don't eat meat every day as part of their culture. Meat is a "special occasion" kind of thing. And when you don't eat meat, you have to eat lots of other things, all of which usually come from plants. Hmmmm.

As far as staying active, most of the Blue Zoners don't do anything more strenuous than walking. But they walk a lot. They don't really set out to "exercise" exactly, walking is just part of how they do what they need to do - in Sardinia, lots of men are shepherds and they walk upwards of five miles a day just doing their job, for example.

Eat right and exercise. Nothing ground-breaking here. But some of the other lessons gave me more pause for thought.

"Have a purpose." And your purpose doesn't have to be particularly grandiose - you just need something to get you out of bed in the morning - a hobby, a friendship, a responsibility. According to this book, there was a spike in death rates among the elderly after December 31, 1999. After finding no other explanation, it was chalked up to people just promising themselves they would see the new millennium. Once that was done, they lost their purpose.

"Find the right tribe." I love the way this is worded. This just means that you will be like the people you surround yourself with. Pick friends who are active, positive, and healthy, and guess what?? You just might live to be 100.

In the end, the author put together nine life lessons that came out of their longevity study. Some of them are common sense, but as I said, others are quite thought-provoking. And the entire book is interesting. Definitely worth your time.


When I finished The Blue Zones, I immediately started New York, by Edward Rutherford. I have been really stoked about this book.

Rutherford wrote one of my favorite books of all time: London. He also wrote Sarum (which I loved), The Forest (which I liked a whole lot) Russka (which I really wanted to like and tried to read twice), and a series on Ireland (which just didn't do it for me). But since I love New York, I have high hopes that I will love New York.

Rutherford is a British James Michener. He creates family lines that extend for generations upon generations in one place, and he uses these characters and their experiences to tell the story of that place. He does a LOT of research, and his books are LONG. New York begins with the Dutch settlements in the 1600s, and goes all the way to September 11, 2001. I'm only two chapters in, but so far, so good.

I'm looking forward to taking my time and getting immersed in this one.