This will likely come as no shock to you - but I love reading - and I'm generally happy to read anything.
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My list this year has included Tiger Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian, The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F--- by Mark Manson and Lethal White by Robert Galbraith, who we all know is J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame.
They're good books, and I'd recommend them all, but they don't come close to the one which I'd rate as the best I've read in the past 12 months.
No, the most compelling book I've read in that time was written by someone a lot closer to home - Detective Leading Senior Constable Jason Bray, who's based in Wangaratta.
His book - Ice Nation: Cracking an Ice Syndicate - tells the story of how police cracked a multi-million dollar drug empire in the North East.
From start to finish, it was fascinating, informative and more than a little bit scary.
I couldn't put it down.
Perhaps scariest was when Bray detailed how easy it was for someone to become addicted to ice and that it was happening to people from all walks of life - not just those from "the bad side of town".
One puff of the ice pipe at a party is all it takes for someone to become addicted and, from there, the spiral downward can be fast and unforgiving.
Aaron Dalton wanted to be the star of the next Underbelly series back in 2012 but instead, thanks to the work of Bray and his team, the only thing he's starring on is the CCTV network of a Victorian prison.
To some, a life of drugs but might seem glamorous, but in reality all it involves is brutality, squalor and pain.
"We are stopping the flow of drugs through rural areas, one drug dealer at a time, and we won't be stopping anytime soon," Detective Inspector Winston Woodward told The Border Mail on Friday.
"We rely on information from community members and hard work by our local police in matters such as these, and in this case we have seen great success."
I'd like to extend a big thank you to the hard-working police in our region whose aim it is to keep us safe.
In the meantime, keep talking with your kids and loved ones about how devastating drugs like ice can be.
Better still, read Jason Bray's book.
Xavier Mardling is The Border Mail editor
Xavier Mardling
Xavier started at The Border Mail in Albury-Wodonga in 2001, covering sport and general news before moving to the subs' desk. He was editor of his hometown masthead from 2016 to 2020 before swapping the Murray for Merewether. He returned to The Border Mail as editor in 2023.
Xavier started at The Border Mail in Albury-Wodonga in 2001, covering sport and general news before moving to the subs' desk. He was editor of his hometown masthead from 2016 to 2020 before swapping the Murray for Merewether. He returned to The Border Mail as editor in 2023.
