Every Friday I point you to some recommended reading around the blogosphere:

1. A friend on Facebook pointed me to this hysterical post on Yahoo! Travel featuring excerpts from foreign travel guides about Britain. LOL funny.

2. Speaking of Facebook, here’s a terrific piece from the Montreal Gazette on what it’s like to dumped on FB (via the ever-lovely Sharon Hyman of Neverbloomers).

3. On a more serious note, I was quite taken with this essay by Clay Graham on the New York Times Modern Love column about what happens when work gets in the way of romance (but not in the obvious way.)

4. I always love Michelle Kerns’ quirky and insightful book examiner column on examiner.com. Here she is talking about the seven stages of grief you go through when you buy a hardcover and realize that it wasn’t worth it.

5. And while we’re on the subject of books, if you haven’t yet come across this little gem – I write Like – I’d suggest that you give it a whirl. It’s a website that tells you which famous writer your writing style resembles. I came up as Vladimir Nabokov and I must say that I’m quite psyched about that. Who knew that my writing was so racy?

6. Finally, for those who are interested, here’s my post on www.PoliticsDaily.com about the Church of England’s war over women.

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An old friend of mine recently posted the following sentence on his Facebook page: “I know this is totally not a PC thing to say, but can someone please explain to me why anyone is still Catholic?”

It’s a fair question. And my Politics Daily colleague, Melinda Henneberger, has one answer. In an honest and moving piece she wrote a few days back, Melinda tells us that she’s as put off as the next person by the current sex abuse scandal roiling the Catholic Church, as well as by the Vatican’s latest attempts to play the victim and point fingers. At the end of the day, though, Melinda is going to hang in there with this Church, because being Catholic is integral to who she is. “In the end,” she writes,”it is not about them.”

Today I’m over on PoliticsDaily.com talking about why I’m not convinced by this argument. I explain why – even if I were contemplating re-entering Christianity – I don’t think I could stomach becoming a Catholic right now, despite being raised in an observant Catholic family. And yes, it has everything to do with the current sex abuse scandal.

Drop on by and have a look.

Image: Pope Benedict XVI in Nazi camp in Brezinzka by miqul via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.