Being Loyal

Being loyal is an admirable quality. But even more important than the loyalty itself, is who one is loyal to. We usually choose that person and they become our friends, our love and/or our family.
However a majority of people are employed in some company at one point of their life or the other. The question of loyalty becomes somewhat pressing - are you loyal to your department, your boss, your company or the people you would choose yourself?
Best case scenario - you respect your boss, you like your company and your colleagues become your friends. Then there is no reason to contemplate loyalty. But what if there is a conflict of sorts. You cannot bring yourself to respect a colleague, much less be loyal to them. All of that in a company that appreciates teamwork..
When someone asks for your honest opinion, should you be loyal to your colleague or yourself?
Sometimes the scene from IT Crowd pops into my head.

On My Bookshelf

It seems that books are accumulating these days, at least as far as my humble library is concerned. Apart from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is obviously a famous bestseller that I never would have consented to reading had it not been for my mother´s recommendation (and my mother does not recommend books not worth one´s time), there are a few others. Like the new Murakami book 1Q84 that comes highly appraised or Wuthering Heights which I bought in an antique shop. Unwisely so, since I spent the next 6 hours doing the Christmas shopping with several books in my handbag (one for reading on the subway, few I bought in the antique shop, one that I borrowed from the city library because of an exam...). In the end quite a painful experience.
Anyway since I have finished The Widdow for One Year by John Irving, I should have been focused on reading articles on virology and polyomaviruses. Instead, I am increasing the numbers of fiction on my shelves. And I am not even able to get to those since I am going to work almost every day.. An intellectual´s hell.