Blog in 01 2012.

Name: Jo

Library: Canada Water

Book: Whatever by Michel Houellebecq

If you like plots that are interrupted by Houellebecq's rants about sex, love and social liberalism – that are actually disguised as the weird animal stories the protagonist writes – then you'll love this.

Here's a visual: You're swimming in a still lake. It's quiet, apart from the occassional dragonfly. All of a sudden you're dragged under by clunky paragraphs you need a dictionary for, and are suffering from whiplash from the jolt in theme. I'll get the lifeguard.

To celebrate National Libraries Day this Saturday, we popped down to our own locals and took out the most interesting books we saw.

Every day this week, we’ll be posting our 50-word book reviews. Expect the unexpected...

Name: Abby

Library: Brixton

Book: City of Glass, Paul Auster

A case of mistaken identity results in a fake detective trying to solve a non-existent crime. Does anything mean anything, or everything mean everything? City of Glass puts a new spin on being ‘lost’ in a book. And it’s bloody good at it too. Prepare to question even the words you’re reading.

Creative Review has just published the results of a reader poll on the best advertising slogans... ever.

This is the top ten.

1. Beanz Meanz Heinz – Heinz (1967)

2. Just Do It – Nike (1987)

3. Does Exactly What It Says On the Tin – Ronseal (1994)

4. Make Love Not War – Various (1960s)

5. Every Little Helps – Tesco (1993)

6. Have a Break. Have a Kit Kat. – Kit Kat (1957)

7. Vorsprung Durch Technik – Audi (1982)

8. Think Different – Apple (1997)

9. It Is. Are You? – The Independent (1986)

10. It's Finger Lickin' Good – KFC (1950s)

So what's your favourite?

And a good one, says our Anelia in the Guardian.

Ofsted wants to change schools’ ‘satisfactory’ rating to ‘requires improvement’. According to Cameron, it’s no longer enough for a school to be ‘just good enough’.

Hmm. ‘Satisfactory’ means different things in different contexts. If you’re asked to make a sandwich and you make a sandwich, you’ve performed that task in a satisfactory way. If you’re asked to cook a banquet for the Queen and you do that, you’ve performed that task in a satisfactory way too.

Changing the words feels like a pointless, box-ticking exercise. If the government really wants to see an improvement, shouldn’t they change their expectations instead?