The first book I bought this year was a Bible, believe it or not, inspired by David Plotz of Slate magazine, who read and blogged the bible (here) and unearthed some amazing stories that I was certainly never told in RE class in CBC Monkstown. Infanticide, incest, mass murder. It’s all there. So I’ve added reading the bible to my short list of New Year’s resolutions. I even got one with a ludicrous rainbow/dove combo on the front so I can look like a proper loony while reading it on the ferry to work. I may start wearing hemp, grow my hair long again, and walk the isles, reading it aloud to myself to see if I can get a reaction from the torpid commuters.

However, now I notice the Guardian has taken up the challenge of blogging the Qur’an, with Ziauddin Sardar and Madeleine Bunting divvying up the task between them. This will be an exercise in diplomacy, as the Qur’an has a tendency to inflame passions at a much greater rate than does the Bible. Already, the intro post has ended up in a lengthy Q & A section, and the month that Sardar recommends you set aside for reading the holy book of Islam could stretch out into several more, and dealing with the various interpretations of its provisions could, in my humble opinion, be a matter of putting out fires left and right. Can you say Fatwa?

Definitely a blog to keep an eye on, particularly if, like me, you hope to read the book at some stage.