Better With Age – by Dr. Alan Castel

This one isn’t about the biology of aging, so much as (as the subtitle promises) the psychology of it.

Dr. Castel first covers the grounds of what “successful aging” is, and the benefits that can be expected from doing it right. Spoiler, it’s not just “reduced decline”, there are numerous things that actually get better, too.

We also learn how our memory works differently—it can be worse, of course, but it can also be just different, in a way that tends to tie in with vastness of the accumulated knowledge over the years, allowing for easiest access to the things the brain thinks are most important—ranging from expertise in a certain field, to life-experience “wisdom”.

There’s a lot of advice that’s mostly not going to be anything new to regular readers of 10almonds, in terms of staying sharp with an active lifestyle and a well-nourished brain.

The style is very soft pop-science; there are citations dotted throughout, but mostly this is more of a “curl up with a book” book, not a textbook.

In the category of subjective criticism, it can be a little repetitive (but for those who like repetition for ease of learning, you will love this), and his name-dropping habit gets quite eyeroll-worthy quite quickly.

Bottom line: if you’d like to learn about the very many ways in which “over the hill” is simply defeatist pessimism, then this book can help you to ensure you do better.

Click here to check out Better With Age, and get better with age!