Kudz

It’s bloody cold here. It lightly snowed Thursday/Friday last week and although we haven’t had any more, it’s still hanging around. It hasn’t been above freezing since and overnight it’s been getting down to -7 or 8. The heating is now back on its usual schedule and will be for the foreseeable future!

I know a lot of people are trying to avoid using Amazon these days (and justifiably so), but I’m not going to lie, I do predominately use them for most things including books, purely because they’re cheaper, deliver quickly and in my experience are reliable.

They’ve done it for the last couple of years. Not sure what their thinking behind it is but it must be popular otherwise they wouldn’t keep doing it. We have all been given an additional paid day off this year for Christmas shopping and mine was a couple of weeks ago so I’m now all set for Christmas. Presents are all bought and wrapped, the house is all decorated and festive looking and I have started watching Christmas movies. I’m not feeling all that festive though for some reason, but hopefully this will change the closer we get to the big day itself.

My favourite radio station Magic is now playing non-stop Christmas music 24/7 from today until Christmas… I mean seriously, what?! I can take the occasional Christmas song mixed in now and again with everything else but cannot listen to it non-stop, especially when it’s not even close to Christmas. Smooth Radio it is for the next month!

I picked up the first seven books in the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths today. Haven’t read anything by this author before but have heard good things about her, specifically about this series, so thought I’d give them ago. The good news is that I did borrow them from my local library rather than buy them so that’s progress!

Does Father Christmas appear in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe? I haven’t read it in years and can’t remember this happening at all, but I do have a copy of it so this is the perfect selection for me!

They’ve been playing them in the shops in my local shopping centre for a few weeks now and I saw my first Christmas related advert on the television in early November. Crazy! I also saw a couple of Christmas trees up in people houses this morning on my way into work which seems a bit early to me, but each to their own.

I have multiple books I could pick for the third category, but I'm not sure about the other two.

Who was Eve in relation to the bible? Okay, so think about the actual picture clues then; we are looking for a two-word title of a classic book and there happens to be song with the same title, the singer of which looks fairly like the woman on the ladder. The first word is related to the weather or more specifically the wind and the woman up the ladder could be conquering her fear of ….?

There are several clues I could give you for this one, but I’ll give you the two easiest ones; it is a classic and there is a song with the same title as the book. Think about who Eve was.

Wow! I can’t imagine getting that amount of snow in one go, but I bet it looks beautiful until it comes to having to go out in it.

The reindeer card is beautiful, and that is one super cute Santa. That is some talent you have.

How is everyone doing on this? Anyone needing any clues?

The name on the collar is significant and the images on the books on the counter combine for part of the title along with what the dog is doing.

There are two clues on the life book shelf.

I saw this advertised but avoided watching it as I have only ever read the first book in the series and didn’t want to be spoiled, but after seeing your post about the episodes only covering book one it seems I can go ahead and watch it after all.

I’m now only needing the one – the bird in the cage – the other one that I had been stuck on, I now have. It turns out it was one I did know, and I had tried it before, but I must have just been typing the title in wrong somehow.

I have managed to get 18, but I am completely stuck on the last two.

Okay, here’s a few suggestions I have come up with so far – Read a book with snow on the cover or the word ‘snow’ in the title Read a book with a red or green cover Read a book set during Christmas Read a book with the word ‘Christmas’ in the title Read a book with a Christmas tree on the cover

I have this week off work, I’m not going anywhere this time around, just having the week to myself at home, but I am so ready for it. I’m planning on getting a few chores done today, so it frees up the rest of the week and then I am going to just relax, curl up under a blanket and read. The weather here is miserable too so it’s even more of an incentive to hibernate for the week.

I love this idea of having different categories and fitting the books to the categories. I think it’s perfect for a site like this where we have not-a-lot of regular members who post, but those that do are readers of all different genres and tastes. It means we can all participate but not necessarily all have to read the same books. I must admit I do love reading a few holiday-related books in the run up to Christmas too, so I am definitely in.

This was my downfall. 99p for a book is an absolute bargain and at one point I was checking the Kindle Monthly Deals each month and clicking on that buy button way too often. I’ve been much better recently though and have avoided looking at them at all; I am determined to try and get through the ones I already have before buying any more. My other problem though is that I will always pick a physical book over a kindle book so I’m not getting through the kindle books that fast.

I’m usually complaining the weekend is over too fast, but yesterday was the longest day ever! We did go through a cold spell, but it’s been a fair bit milder for the last week or so, which is good as we’re trying to avoid putting the heating on for as long as possible! We have had a lot of rain recently though, but today hasn’t been too bad. A bit damp but otherwise not too bad a day for the time of year.

I have thought about logging my books like that, and in fact would love to, but I currently have a lot of them stored in plastic crates and boxes and it would take way too long and would cause too much upheaval for me to be able to do so. I am hoping to move house in the next year or so though, so that would probably be the ideal time for me to log them properly. Feel free to steal it. The more I think about it the more I like the idea as I think it would motivate me more. I have settled on 50 pence for each book read, and a further 50 pence if I unhaul it so it will take me a while to get a decent amount in the jar. Ideally, I’d love to go a full year without touching the money in the jar and then go on a book buying spree at the end, but I’m not sure I have the willpower!

I lost control of mine years ago too and although it does freak me out a little at the sheer number of them waiting to be read, I always think that there are way worse things I could be spending my money on. I have absolutely no idea how many I own but I’d hazard a guess at over a thousand physical books and probably about the same on my Kindle, which I now never use and have completely stopped buying books for. 2023 is going to be the year I curtail my book buying though and I am working on a project which will hopefully help me in my quest to lower my TBR significantly, although it’s going to take a hell of a lot longer than a year for me to get it down to a more manageable level. I’m not going to put a book buying ban on myself as such because we all know that those don’t work but I will be putting a certain amount of money in a jar after I read a book off my shelf and then the amount will double if I unhaul said book. The money in the jar is the only money I can use to buy new books with (whether new or second hand) so if I don’t have enough in the jar to buy a book that I want, then I have to wait until I do.