This appears to be a popular topic for our readers, given the response to our recent column in the Calgary Herald. Thanks again to readers for your comments on that and, by the way, deep breathing exercises may help alleviate your traffic-induced stress.

Another avenue of exploration will be interesting books I’ve read recently and providing excerpts to readers that will hopefully give a flavour of the content. I have always liked Norman Spector’s “I’m Reading” part of his blog, so I hope to emulate that. I will spare readers a mere laundry list of what I’ve read, although that would be an easy way to show my superiority over Mr.K. in digesting turgid tomes on European history and political philosophy. I could also challenge him to produce a list of the trashy pulp thrillers he insists on spending his ample free time with.

We’ll also be inviting a number of guests to submit blogs in their areas of interest, so that should actually spice things up and perhaps not be so low-calorie after all. Stay tuned for all this starting soon. The first book excerpt will be from George Bain’s “Gotcha” on the foibles of journalism.