My name’s Chris, and I’m a Titanorak.  Over the New Years break, I got helplessly immersed in the (massive) world of Titanic memorabilia.

It’s all my sister and brother-in-law’s fault (remember them?) – they got me a book called ‘101 Things You Thought You Knew About Titanic – But Didn’t!’ for Christmas, and in front of toasty fires over the last week I devoured every word.  It’s just such a fascinating story – there’s scandal, mystery, tragedy, nobility, heroism…  That book then prompted me to dig out the many other Titanic-related books that had been lying unread on my bookshelves – and then to buy a DVD boxset of Titanic documentaries – and then to watch Ghosts of the Abyss, the film about a dive to Titanic’s wreckage on the ocean floor.  I’m hooked!

Speaking of films, today I’m on my now-traditional expedition at the start of the new year to capture a Day in the Life of TQ at the start of the year – watch this space for the edited highlights…

And speaking of books, when I can finally tear myself away from the world of Titanic, I’m really looking forward to diving in to the next Book Group book: this month we’re reading Blue Like Jazz by Don Miller. If you’re interested in tracking it down, it’s on Amazon here (and you can be ultra-slick and read it on Kindle) – you can also get a flavour of Don Miller’s style by checking out his brilliant blog here.  Like many of our Book Group books, it’s written by someone who struggled for a long time with a feeling that he didn’t fit into established church structures, and the book is an honest account of his journey.  We’re getting together to chat about it in the Premier Inn at 12:00 on Saturday 22nd January. And at the risk of turning into one of those people who post cutesy pictures of their pets, here’s one member of the Bennett household getting started on the book: