What novels are for

I'm not so wedded to physical books as this, but it's a lovely quote:
When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial escape – into different countries, mores, speech patterns – but what you are essentially doing is furthering your understanding of life's subtleties, paradoxes, joys, pains and truths. Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic. And for this serious task of imaginative discovery and self-discovery, there is and remains one perfect symbol: the printed book Julian Barnes in his pamphlet My life as a biobliophile

The city hen weekend is back in

'Bridal magazines,' said my daughter, dumping a stack of them in my living room. 'I bet you read them because you read everything.'

The city hen weekend is back in. I didn't know it had gone out, or where it had gone, or what had replaced it, or who said it had gone out and what authority they had over its going out and in. Fortunately the all-knowing writers and editors of the bridal magazine did know and could say and now it was back.

Serve your canapes in personalized wooden seed-trays.  Must write that essential tip down for the big day in a year's time.

You too can lose 20lbs in 6 weeks. This was accompanied by a photo of two grim-faced brides running across a beach in a strong wind with a parachute tied to their backs.