There seems to be doom and gloom everywhere we turn at the moment. Credit-crunch, downturn, recession: we're sick of hearing about it. As far as I can see there is one simple solution. The only way to avoid the constant bad news on the TV and in the newspapers is to switch off the box, put down the tabloids and turn to a book instead.
        We all need a bit of escapism at the moment, and the publishers have obliged in force this year. We've just had what was heralded as Super Thursday – the biggest single day in publishing history. Did it get any news coverage? Of course not. There was no tragic angle, no doom and gloom – so no news, but on Thursday 2nd October, more than 800 titles were published, all vying for the top of the Christmas charts. Everything from fiction and history, cookery and celebrity memoirs, biography and gift books were being launched on the same day making it an almost overwhelming bonanza for those of us who love books.
So what to read? Always the same dilemma, too many books, too little time. We do have a few recommendations, but the choice is almost limitless.
Dawn French's autobiography Dear Fatty, promises to be a huge hit, and could give us all a much needed laugh. Parky is full of anecdotes from Micheal Parkinson's long career – giving us an insight into how the other half live, and what could be more escapist than that?
        Of course there are the usual celebrity cookbooks. Jamie is trying to teach us all the basics with Ministry of Food, whilst Nigella is telling us how simple perfection can be in her new book Nigella's Christmas. I love cookbooks. With a cookbook I can indulge in the pretence that I am buying something useful, even necessary, when in fact I read them for pure vicarious pleasure and rarely venture beyond beans on toast in my own kitchen.
For more open indulgence I turn, always, to fiction. For less than a tenner you can be anyone, anywhere, at any time with a paperback book. Who wouldn't want that? And there are some big names releasing books at the moment. From Bernard Cornwell, to Alan Titchmarsh through Booker prize winner Aravind Adiga, to Ken Follett and Martina Cole – there really is something for every taste.
        Whatever your choice, whether fiction or biography, serious reading or light, everyone can find something to escape into this Christmas. The credit crunch can't bite when you're being chased by a crazed axeman, falling in love for the first time, fighting at the battle of Agincourt, or even just drooling over Nigella's Christmas baking – Enjoy.

Caroline Overfield.