Many moons ago, in another country and a former century I worked in an advertising agency in London and "lorem ipsum" was a familiar part of my life.

This was a time, barely 20 years ago, when London's Fleet Street was still home to most of Britain's major newspapers and the typesetters worked feverishly to lay down the type for the next day's papers using a process not that far removed from that used by William Caxton's former apprentice, Wynkyn de Worde, when he set up shop in a lane close to Fleet Street almost 500 years earlier; and probably recognizable by the printers of The Daily Courant, London's first daily newspaper, that published its first issue in Fleet Street in March 1702.

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Back in the dark ages when I was dating, I had a friend tell me I had no standards when it came to men – that I'd date anyone. Now, that certainly wasn't true. I wouldn't, for example, date someone with poor hygiene or who professed to be an axe-murderer. I did have to admit, though, that my friend had a point, that I would date, well, pretty much anyone who'd ask me out. On further analysis I decided that this was not, as implied by this so-called "friend," an indication of loose morality, but was in fact an indication of strong character. It meant I didn't judge people too quickly; I got to know them a bit before deciding whether or not a relationship had any chance of working out. A valuable gem might lie just beneath a rough exterior. I was willing to take the chance of finding out.

I'm no longer free to date (I have a feeling my husband would disapprove), so I've had to find something else to feed this need I have to try new things. That "something else" is, of course, the world of books.  (Who knows? Perhaps it was my love of constantly exploring different kinds of books that led to my willingness to sample different kinds of men.)

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OK, I know it's February, but I'm still thinking about New Year's Resolutions.

I recently stumbled on a blog that asked about people's reading resolutions for 2009. I was surprised to see so many people – for some reason, nearly all female – making the same resolutions I did this year. So far I'm failing miserably. I'm still buying far too many books, still not checking them out of the library, and my reading still lacks variety.

This last lapse is the most disturbing to me. My goal specifically addresses reading more non-fiction books.I like non-fiction books, once I actually start reading them. I rarely pick up a recommended autobiography or history that I end up disliking (in fact, I can't remember that happening in years). And, to be fair, I do read some non-fiction books over the course of an average year (generally because my book club insists). They're just a smaller percentage than I'd like.

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Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor

Humans are much like fruitcake. Now, I know fruitcake analogies are hard to swallow for most American readers but, as a born and bred Brit, I love (a well-made) fruitcake - so go with me on this for a moment!

When we're young the things we learn, and especially the 'truths' we discover for ourselves mix the essential ingredients of our character, forming the person we'll become - they become baked into our adult selves. As adults, we keep on learning and discovering but very rarely do new ideas impact us as powerfully once we get into our middle years - they form the icing on the cake, not the cake itself (and yes, before you ask, in England we do ice our fruitcakes - particularly for weddings and Christmas).

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Kim Kovacs, BookBrowse reviewer

My friend and I have a long-standing annual competition: Most books read. I have a clear advantage in that my two cats are much more conducive to spare-time reading than are his two toddlers, but never-the-less the numbers are usually pretty close. He has recently accused me of cheating, however, since I include audio books on my list of books "read." In my opinion, I still experience the book, and I spend just as much time listening to one as I would if I were actually reading it, and therefore it counts. In his, reading is reading, listening isn't reading, and therefore it doesn't. (You say "potato," I say "po-tah-to.") He is, unfortunately, an accountant, and therefore quite literally-minded.

Although I am a voracious reader of "real" books, I'm still a big fan of audio books. They have the obvious advantage of allowing me to enjoy a book while doing less enjoyable tasks (like housework or exercising). I'll often purchase the audio version of something I've read in paper copy, as sometimes listening to the work can provide a different understanding or perspective than reading it. For some reason, too, it's easier to pick up an audio copy of one of those books I've been meaning to read that I never quite get around to (Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo are two that immediately come to mind).

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Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor

Since the first publicly-funded library opened in the USA in 1833, many generations of children have been inspired and nurtured by local librarians - none more so than the two generations of children in Old Greenwich, Connecticut who have had the privilege to be members of the Young Critics' Club at Perrot Memorial Library.

The club (actually, two clubs, one for grades 4-5 and one for 6-8) was founded by librarian Kate McClelland over 25 years ago (the oldest "Young Critics" are now in their 40s) and up until this week was run by Kate, her colleague Kathy Krasniewicz, and library director Mary Clark.

That was until yesterday when an apparently drunk driver veered into an airport bus on its way to Denver airport, killing two of the passengers, identified as Kathy Krasniewicz, 54 and Kate McClelland, 71 - who were returning home from the American Library Association's Midwinter meeting. Greenwich's local newspaper, The Greenwich Times, has more details.

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