Ok…so…we need to talk about how terrible I am at trying to stick to this book ban and believe me, I have more than 20 books at home that I need to read.

It started when I saw a series of books that I have on my amazon wish list on the book people for a cheaper price. I often buy from the book people at Christmas because I think they offer a diverse range of interesting books that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought to buy otherwise.

I saw ‘The Vinyl Detective’ series by Andrew Cartmel on the book people for a cheaper price and decided to buy it. Here’s the thing, I couldn’t just buy that one series, I had to look through and see if there was anything else I wanted to buy because I am that sort of impulse book buyer. I saw the also had the ‘Shadow and Bone’ series, which was also on my wish list, so I added that to my basket. By the time I checked out, I’d ordered 15 books – I kid you not, 15!! – and I’ve listed them below for you.

1. The Midnight Gang by David Williams
2. The Four-Fingered Man (The Gateway Series) by Ceberus Jones
3. The Warriors of Brin-Hask (The Gateway Series) by Ceberus Jones
4. The Midnight Mercenary (The Gateway Series) by Ceberus Jones
5. The Ancient Starship (The Gateway Series) by Ceberus Jones
6. The Time Shifter (The Gateway Series) by Ceberus Jones
7. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
8. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
9. Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
10. The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax by Andrew Cartmel
11. The Vinyl Detective: The Run Out Groove by Andrew Cartmel
12. The Vinyl Detective: Victory Disc by Andrew Cartmel
13. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
14. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
15. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

Buying 15 books is in itself excessive, even though I know it will take me no time at all to read them. I then did something worse, and ordered 6 more books – I feel like I should be punished with a slap to the hand. Those six books are as follows:

1. The Jamie Drake Equation by Christopher Edge
2. The Many Worlds of Albie Bright by Christopher Edge
3. Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll
4. Cogheart by Peter Bunzel
5. Moonlocket by Peter Bunzel
6. Skycircus by Peter Bunzel

I am a book obsessed girl in every sense of the word and I don’t think that will be changing any time soon, though I hope to be able to curb my tendency when it comes to buying books.

Then on Wednesday evening I bought 7 more books – but this will be it for a while. – because The Book People were having a flash sale.

1. Once by Morris Gleitzman
2. The Floating Lady Murder (The Harry Houdini Mysteries) by Daniel Stashower
3. The Dime Museum Murders (The Harry Houdini Mysteries) by Daniel Stashower
4. The Houdini Spectre (The Harry Houdini Mysteries) by Daniel Stashower
5. Mrs Hudson and the Malabar Rose (Holmes & Hudson Mysteries) by Martin Davies
6. Mrs Hudson and the Lazarus Testament (Holmes & Hudson Mysteries) by Martin Davies
7. Mrs Hudson and the Spirits’ Curse (Holmes & Hudson Mysteries) by Martin Davis

In other news, my new mattress arrived last week and I have enjoyed a week of painless sleeping. When I woke up last Sunday morning I was surprised by how little stiffness I felt and how little my injuries were hurting – usually it is very painful for me to move first thing in the morning and walking down the stairs is always challenging. I am over the moon that the new mattress is working and diminishing the pain. I now know I should be replacing my mattress every 8-12 years and will probably look to do that so that I don’t find myself in the situation I did here where I was experiencing so much pain.

One of my best friends is getting married in New York this year and I have now successfully booked my flight and hotel and booked the time off work. I haven’t been to New York for eleven years and I know a lot has changed over time, both in New York and with myself. It will be interesting to go back and see the changes and see how well I navigate being older and wiser. I’m hoping to meet up with a couple of NYC friends and hopefully not impulse buy a load of books!!

My Dad is speaking at Davos – The World Economics Forum – this week, which is hugely amazing and I’m very proud of him. He’s also getting a few days skiing in ahead of our skiing holiday in March.

I started a bullet journal, or rather, I made all my tracker pages so I could start writing/colouring in my bullet journal. For a while I stayed away because I thought I might find it too anxiety inducing. (Sometimes I get stuck in a loop when I repeat over and over again writing or drawing something because it’s not perfect, it’s one of the ways my OCD affects me.)

However, to my surprise I’m doing alright. I’ve only had to rip out four pages, which is rather good for me and am so far, enjoying using it. I love making list, using lists and having colour coordinated charts that tell me things, so it’s a good thing for me to do I think. I’ve basically designed it so I can keep track of certain things in my life. Below is a list of the pages I’ve made so far:

1. Iron Deficiency Tracker
2. Migraine/Headache Tracker
3. Daily Mood Tracker
4. Savings Jar – Monthly
5. Money Saving Goals – basically a page with boxes that have different amounts of money in them all totalling £1,000 when I save, I pick a number and colour it in and then save that money.
6. Debt Tracker
7. Monthly Bill Tracker
8. Weekly Steps Tracker
9. Self Care Page
10. Anxiety/Depression Page & Help
11. TV Tracker

I think I might make some more tracker pages but I haven’t decided what I want to include yet.

I’ve had two ideas this week.

First an idea for work to get more people reading, I’d like to get a small basket to put a selection of books in. I want to wrap the books in brown paper and write a view choice words on, like; genre, feelings, vague plot description – so people can pick a mystery book to read. I think, especially in my circle of friends/colleagues, there is a lack of wanting to read and I’d like to change that.

My second thought was regarding reviews. I read a lot of original content on http://www.wattpad.com where what I’m reading are books that aren’t officially published but are still written by some incredibly people. I wondered if you’d like some reviews of original unpublished works? Or whether you’d prefer I just stick to published books. Let me know in the comment section 🙂

Hannah xoxo