Regular readers of this blog will know of my fondness for this magazine, particularly, but not only for the quality of the journalism and the excellent book reviews.And to be able to buy it on Ponsonby Road for NZ$7.95 on publication date is a real bonus.

In the issue of 11 April Alain De Botton opens his diary for us. Here for your enjoyment are a couple of excerpts:

As a type, authors are famous for the amount of time they waste. We change light bulbs, stare out of the window and congratulate ourselves if we have managed to turn out 800 words in a day. But having recently spent some time working in a big corporation, an ultra-modern temple of glass and steel that exudes an impression of über-efficiency, I’m reassured that squandering time is endemic in all areas of human activity. I was amazed by the amount of idle chat, internet surfing and banter ahead of every meeting. People may dutifully show up for work between 9 and 6.30, but the time during which they really do anything profitable is a fraction of this. I’ve come to think of the average company (or person) as a bucket riddled with holes out of which water is constantly leaking. It’s a miracle if there’s anything left in the bucket at all by the end of the tax year. What we call ‘a profit’ is at heart a small percentage of what there might have been if the human race was not endemically and gloriously wasteful.

For all the talk of old-fashioned paper-and-glue books being about to disappear to be replaced by electronic devices, it’s nice to see some segments of the market bucking the trend. The ever impressive Tyler Brûlé, editor of the magazine Monocle, is launching a new book club, where books you’ll find on the high street will be offered in collectable versions printed on exquisite paper and retailing at £50. My prediction for the book market is that we’re about to see it divide into throwaway books you download electronically and books you want to really keep which will get more expensive but, at the same time, more attractive too. It’s the trend for print media too, where we’re apparently all going to be reading more magazines and weekend papers but far fewer dailies.

Alain de Botton's latest book is The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, (Penguin).