"When I think of England, I think of the queen taking her dogs for walk in the countryside," says Carsten Haferkamp, a dog-owning German working in London. Data from Tractive, a firm that provides GPS tracking for pets, show that Britons walk their dogs more than their European neighbors do.

The British love for dog-walking may have more to do with the walking than the dogs. Britons are big walkers –they came fifth in the world in a study in 2017, the highest in Europe. Dogs provide walkers with company and a purpose, so it may be that walking encourages dog-ownership.

But Julien Dugnoille, an expert at Exeter University, suspects dog-walking has a deeper significance. Dogs, he suggests, are a useful aid to a socially awkward nation. "Britons tend to have a chat with strangers and exchange a few jokes and comments about the weather without putting themselves in danger."

A tradition among the British nobles of owning and training dogs also leads Dr Dugnoille to assume that dog-walking is a way to keep ancient honor. "When people in the park say Max is very well-behaved," says Dr Dugnoille, "that is a way to show their authority in the art of dog training compared to those dog owners who are not in control of their own dog."

But it's not just about showing off, in his view. He believes walking with one's best friend creates a time and space where dogs and humans meet as species and connect as individuals.

Still, Britons should not congratulate themselves too much on their behavior towards their dog companions. According to Dr Carri Westgarth of Liverpool University, "People say that a dog needs a walk every day, but they will find reasons why their dog doesn't need a walk. They'll say: he's got company indoors, he's nervous or he doesn't like the rain."

Every year, Barnes & Noble picks the 10 best books of the year, covering all genres and age groups. If you're looking for an amazing book to grab before the end of 2022, here are some of the best books of the year.

Cloud Cuckoo Land

This novel is both a historical and futuristic science fiction story that connects five characters across hundreds of years through their relationship to a book: "Cloud Cuckoo Land". The book they find is about a shepherd named Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird, so he can live a carefree life forever. As each character finds this book, from a 15th century kid to a young teen on a futuristic interstellar ship, their stories meet in this complex yet fascinating read.

Crying in H Mart

When Michelle Zauner was 25, her mother's cancer changed her life forever and forced her to accept her Korean American identity in a desperate attempt to stay connected to her mother. As a talented musician, Michelle had previously been divorced from her cultural roots, but quickly turned to food to keep her mother's memory alive in this powerful and heartbreaking memoir.

Pony

It is a historical, middle-grade adventure novel intended for adolescents. It talks about a 12-year-old boy named Silas who is woken in the middle of the night to see his father being taken away by three horsemen. With only his horse named Pony by his side, Silas sets off on a life-changing mission to find his father.

You Will Get Through This Night

It is a nonfiction read about mental health that offers both a personal and professional outlook on how to survive the hardest mental health days. Dividing the book into three chapters — This Night, Tomorrow, and The Days After — Daniel Howell wants readers to not just survive the hard nights but properly care for our mental health.

The world's clocks mark every passing second, minute and hour. But to humans, seconds of pain can feel like minutes, and hours spent at a party can end in a blink.

The brain can stretch or squeeze the feeling of time for many reasons, including pleasure, pain, fear and age. Although the science behind this "subjective time" is not fully understood, some research suggests that an additional factor might influence the subjective length of your life: your income.

Research already suggests that, on average, wealthy people live longer, biologically. Now, emerging work indicates that varied and novel experiences could create more "time codes" in the human brain as it processes memory formation. This, in turn, could mean that people who can afford to enjoy more vacations and hobbies, and who have more stimulating jobs, will recall having lived for a longer time on Earth.

"Even though time flies when you're having fun, when you look back on it, you can remember much more of this extended experience compared to a boring experience," says Jorgen Sugar, a postdoctoral student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience. He's part of a team of scientists investigating these mental time codes.

The idea that novelty can affect the experience of time also seems to fit cultures that don't measure time using clocks—many cultures rely instead on celestial (天空的), cultural and seasonal events to mark the flow of time. "Our experience of time does vary according to circumstances, and also according to the kind of rhythm of activity we engage in," says Chris Sinha, a cognitive scientist working with Hunan University who has studied so called "event-based time" in Amazonian tribes and linguistic minority groups in China.

But other experts aren't convinced. According to Monica Capri, an economist with a background in neuro-economies at Claremont Graduate University, subjective time isn't well understood scientifically. Even if higher-paid jobs can lead to more new experiences, wealthy people aren't necessarily spending money that way. A millionaire, for instance, may spend money on a fancy watch, but this isn't likely to change their feeling of time the way a vacation or even a low-cost hike would, she says.

What's more, she says, there are many factors to consider in how the brain processes time. For instance, according to Adrian Bejan, a professor at Duke University, the novelty of fun experiences can simply wear off.

Still, researchers from many fields are eager to uncover the mysteries of memory and subjective time. According to Sugar, understanding how humans form and recall memories can affect many aspects of society, such as law, education and health care—and perhaps can even aid our understanding of ourselves. "The human brain is the most complex biological system we know," he says.