A promise to read more ethnically diverse writers

Here's why I love books - they can take you to different lands, introduce you to different types of people, teach you about things you never knew. Books are diverse, and I love them for it.

So I was more than a little embarrassed to discover how undiverse the books I've read this year are when it comes to the ethnicity of their authors (there are lots of other kinds of diversity which are also missing in publishing, but I want to focus on ethnic diversity because it's of particular personal interest to me). I put together a list of my top summer reads for 2015, and all the authors on it were white. I didn't do this on purpose, and I only realised afterwards, once I'd read a critical piece about a best of summer reading list compiled by a newspaper. No one called me out on the lack of diversity of my list, but they should have.

The inner monologue you have when you're getting a massage

"My back is killing me, and my shoulder. I should get a massage. This is going to great, I deserve a treat.

"Massage day tomorrow! Wait, are my legs properly waxed? I should make sure. What if I've missed a bit?

"What should I wear? I don't want to look like a slob, but I want to be comfortable.

"Should I moisturise before I go? I mean, the masseuse will use massage oil, but I don't want her thinking I'm an adult who has never met a tub of body butter in her life.