I'm not a joiner by nature, but when my place of employment started a book club, I thought, what the heck, I should get to know my co-workers better, and resolved to attend. And so I appeared at the appointed hour in the appropriate conference room.

Looking around the room that first meeting, I saw to my horror that more than half of the attendees were members of the senior staff who wouldn't know me from Eve. I wondered if I was in the right place.

"Excuse me, is this the book club?"

"It's not a book club. The word 'club' connotes exclusivity. We're a book group."

Uh oh...

I should have realized off the bat that this wouldn't be the fun, gossipy kind of book group so many people enjoy.  Something's gotta be fishy when Management sponsors a book club.  Somehow I missed the announcement that its focus would be "diversity."  (I found out later that someone had set a goal that the company would hold a certain number of events each year to sponsor diversity in the workplace, with some percentage of employees attending at least one event annually.  It was all very political.) 

[More]

Library Journal did a special report on genealogy products last week profiling nine online resources to help you track down your nearest and dearest through the ages. This, and a delightful framed collage of sepia tinted photos hanging in pride of place in a friend's house, got me thinking about how different the experience of future generations will be to ours. Instead of searching hard and long to find connections to our ancestors, future generations will be hard pressed to extricate themselves from the weight of ancestral evidence.

[More]

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.

[More]

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.)

[More]

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.

[More]

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).

[More]