News Reader

No, I'm not referring to the type who appears on TV, does the little paper shuffle and goes 'Hello, this is the ... news'. Neither am I referring to those whose Sunday rituals involve tea and the Sunday broadsheet. Nor one of these:

It has probably stemmed from the habits of my parents, but I hardly ever buy an actual newspaper (unless it comes with a good DVD). When I was younger, I would watch Newsround in order to 'keep up with current affairs' because we're always educated that if you don't know the news, you're ignorant.

Obviously, I started to grow out of that and pretty much stopped being aware of any news, even if what I knew before was mainly limited to world disasters and school makeovers. Oh, and did you know that Jamie Lynn Spears gave birth? I didn't.

That doesn't mean that I don't read the news. I do, checking onto Times Online and The Guardian regularly (read: 3 or 4 times a day). This is probably mainly because I prefer reading broadsheets, but I've never quite got the hang of physically handling them. They're big. Anyway, so naturally when I reach the website homepages I am updating myself with major news. However I rarely read those articles. Instead, I prefer to use the news as a way of expanding my understanding of issues as opposed to being informed of them. For this reason, I tend to stick to the hugely insightful comments and blogs on these websites, and the articles which debate rather than report.

Often my favourites are the most controversial, and then I often end up quoting them in conversations or debates (yes I'm that hugely annoying person who likes to support everything they say with 'I read...'). What sort of newsreader are you?

Anyway, I thought I'd post some of my favourite articles that I've read in the past few weeks (not that I agree with all of them) as they really do offer a lot of food for thought, something which I'm not sure I'm yet capable of doing. Yes, still recovering... I went to bed ridiculously early yesterday again.

Abortion: why it's the ultimate motherly act

'We like our Venuses young'

The do's and don'ts of poetry

Which interesting articles have you read lately?