Hoo boy, I am ever so glad last year is behind us. A topsy-turvy end to 2007 rendered me incapable of reading nothing more rigorous than wine bottle labels. And even those sometimes proved too difficult to sort out: "Cabernet Sauvignon? Merlot? Pinot Noir? I will be serving meatloaf. Is there no hero to rescue me from the Wines of California aisle of the discount liquor mart?"

Drying out and getting back in the swing, I'm currently making my way through Joshua Ferris' NBA nominated Then We Came to the End. Just prior, I re-read Matt Beaumont's e, a comedy about antics at an ad agency which is comprised entirely of e-mails. Ferris' book is also a comedy about an ad agency, but the gimmick here (Do all novels about ad agencies have a gimmick?) is that it's written in first person plural. I'm only a handful of pages in and am waiting to discover what merited the NBA nomination, but I've been assured by others that the end of Then We Came to the End is where I'll hit pay dirt. Thus far, however, e is still winning in chuckles and has a slight edge because it only requires a commitment of a few hours.