Recently in What We're Reading Category

Oh, it's not like me to get excited about a book and blog on it before I've even finished it, is it?

Oh no - because I'm sensible enough to realise I could go home tonight, turn over a page and find the book has descended into dire and is now destined only for the dump.

Ha, yeah right! Generally, the book I'm reading is always the one I'm aching to blog about - because the moment I've finished it is the moment I'm onto the next one...

I've started this year with a PILE of nice crisp new books to read (one of the best reasons to have Christmas methinks)

I tend to choose a new book based on either a friend's recommendation or a cursory glance at the jacket (I know this is wrong, but I don't like reading sypnoses - they always spoilt the plot)

Anyway, I'd like to know what's on your 2010 'books to read' list please - it might inspire me. Here's mine... just in case it does the same...

Don't you just love January?

Okay, so you might struggle to agree with me on that one - what with all the snow and ice on the ground, the belt tightening and the constant health and fitness chatter.

But this is a great month for book lovers. Turn the reasons above into an opportunity to curl up with a good book and gorge yourself on all those novels you've been longing to read...

It's seriously cold outside and the first credit crunch Christmas is approaching.

Now is definitely the time to start compiling your book 'wish list' and clear some space so you can curl up on the sofa and unwind.

Perhaps you fancy getting your hands on a fantasy tale like The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart?

Thanks to ECHO reporter Gary Stewart for this review...

Book Club has a new rule.

The implementation was controversial - but the majority ruled in the end.

Those of you who are in book clubs will understand the problem we faced.

When it comes to selecting next month's book, there is so much debate, discussion and compromise - you end up veering to the middle of the road...

Do you remember I had to abandon The Book of Lost Things to finish Tuesdays With Morrie in time for the latest meeting of our book club?

Well I managed it with at least an hour to spare - meaning I wasn't forever cast into Coventry and was able to at least nibble at the brie (ha!) and chuck in my thoughts on the book as we went along.

Still, I wasn't a huge fan of this one..

Many of you will have seen Dawn Porter presenting various programmes on Channel 4 - everything from Dawn Porter: Mail Order Bride to Dawn Porter: Geisha Girl.

You may not know Dawn studied at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) before going on to start work for the Beeb.

Here Liverpool Daily Post and ECHO intern Michele Wilson reviews her book 'Diaries of an Internet Lover'...

What a book.

Everything is Illuminated was Jonathan Safran Foer's first novel and sickeningly, he was only 25 when he wrote it.

I'll admit it now. I adored every word. It's funny, sweet, tantalising, confusing, clever, devastating...and a little weird...

It had been on the shelf for a while and thank goodness, my holiday gave me the proper time to devour The White Tiger!

I love a good book set in India (see my views on Shantaram which is, incidentally, supposed to be Madonna's favourite book)

Anyway, The White Tiger. It's a properly decent read; funny, slightly troubling, comically immoral and yet very very believable... 

I have a love hate relationship with Ian McEwan although now I struggle to remember where the 'hate' bit came from... I think it's because his books often end badly.

I've just finished Saturday though and I thought it was good. It has been widely criticised because it is Ian McEwan at his most 'wordy'... he manages to stretch the action from one day into a whole book... without so much of a whiff of Jack Bauer.

I was about halfway through when...