DISCOVERING a good book is a delight I never get tired of. I remember coming top in a school book review with a novel called Goodnight Mister Tom and everyone was pestering me for a copy.

So, this week sees the start of a regular reading column in your priceless weekly. Working alongside the bookworms in Waterstones, we hope to weigh up the latest reading matter and point our readers in the direction of the best book stands.

The Summer hols are probably the most fruitful time to get stuck into a novel so here goes.

My first recommendation is Bridget Jones's diary by Helen Fielding (Picador). BJ's diary is a daily account, in fact sometimes a minute-by-minute account of the life of a thirty-year-old something on the turbulent highway of life constantly questioning what she's doing, why she's still single and ultimately how many calories she's consumed that day.

Thoughts, ideas, worries and concerns that I was convinced no one else haboured but me, are sketched out in just the first few pars. Unfortunately putting photos in a photo album was one of my New Year's resolutions too.

Bridget and the majority of her friends call themselves the Singletons - a made up family who compensate for their meal-for-one lifestyles by getting together.

There's plenty of evenings spent bemoaning male deficiencies. But then as BJ concedes while her and her friends are having a rant in the pub, and I couldn't resist quoting this, "There is nothing so unattractive to a man as strident feminism."

As a member of the fairer sex, the diary leaves you feeling strangely liberated, like it's ok to get excited about enjoying a Saturday night in with a steamed ginger pudding from Marks &Spencer. That it's not just your own mother who insists that you pour gravy around the side of your roast dinner and not all over it.

As far as the plot goes, or should I say the twists and turns of Bridget's life, the diary comes straight out of the pages of Jane Austen's notebook and for Pride and Prejudice fans it includes a guy called Mr Darcy.

It's effortless reading matter and that's why it is an ideal book to take on your hols. It's also a perfect present for a sister or girlfriend who should then recommend it to their mum.

Women will love BJ because they can identify with her for having a boyfriend who sits in all summer with the curtains closed watching cricket, for being an ambitious but rather hopeless cook and for having a completely mad mother.

For the lads, it's a perfect way to get to grips with the complex and highly intelligent female mind. Summer reading list Here's a list of other books for your summer reading list.

Melvyn Bragg's Credo tells a historic tale of a young Irish princess who becomes a saint.

The there's Iain Banks' Excession. A story about a black sphere that threatens the galaxy. Older readers should look out for Maeve Binchy's Evening Class and a tale about a fateful trip to Italy.

In Accordion Crimes by Annie Proulx the reader follows the musical instrument as it's passed from one owner to another in a momentous journey across the United States. Finally in Stephen King's Desperation good and evil battle it out on the abandoned streets of a ghost town.

Next week look out for the best in childrens' books for the summer.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.