I have not done a weekend catch up in forever! Mostly just because I haven’t been doing much on the weekend that warrants attention, but, I thought it would be good to catch up a little on what I’ve been doing and what I’ve been reading.

I have, since Thursday 17th October, been suffering from a rather horrific head cold that has made me feel like death resurrected me, took one look at my cold, and say ‘actually, no.’ I do now, however, feel like the end is in sight. Despite the blocked nose, blocked ears, sinus headache, hot and cold flushes and the fact that I’ve bruised my chest from coughing so much, I do feel a little better.

I have been a little behind on reading since I came down with the cold but I have done something that I’m quite proud of – even if it seems ridiculous. I have always been prone to getting bad colds, my immune system is weaker than the average person and I usually take time off work when I get ill. This time however, I’ve been in work every day of the cold, struggling to survive through the sneezes, the tissues and to stay awake but it is the first time I’ve done it in the 3.5 years I’ve been at my place of work. If anything, it’s shown my colleagues the reason why I usually take time off. It is amusing to me how many people have asked me if I’ve gotten another cold, and are shocked to discover I’ve had the same cold for a week!

Anyway, you haven’t clicked on this post to hear about my cold.

This month has been up and down. I had surgery at the end of September and was signed off from work the first week of October – I got a lot of reading done then. Since, I have been battling migraines from low air pressure and haven’t felt inclined to read a lot.

I have still managed to read 11 books so far this month.

• The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman
• The Lost Tide Warriors by Catherine Doyle
• The Somerset Tsunami by Emma Carroll
• Max Kowalski Didn’t Mean It by Susie Day
• The Missing Ones by Patricia Gibney
• Scarlet and Ivy: The Lost Twin by Sophie Clevely
• Truth and Lies by Caroline Mitchell
• The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda
• The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda
• Beneath the Surface by Jo Spain
• Cuckoo by Sophie Draper

For the remainder of the month, I hope to read the following books:

• Girls Like Us by Cristina Alger
• The Secret Child by Caroline Mitchell
• Don’t Tell a Soul by D. K. Hood
• The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonia Iturbe
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I have been particularly good in the last two weeks with not buying any books*

…

*Technically I brought 13 books from the Book Depository. However, two of them were Christmas presents. The rest are books I’ve read on Kindle but wanted to own in paperback. Also I got the first 3 Agatha Christie Poirot books (as the earliest one I could find in Waterstones was the fourth book!)

Rather irritatingly, unlike when I order books from Amazon, The Book People or Waterstones, where they group deliveries together, my order from the Book Depository has now been separated into four different deliveries with two books still marked as ‘processing’. It is my first time using the Book Depository because I’d originally assumed it was an American site and not available to me. I’ll admit that I was attracted to the site by the cheaper prices and the bigger variety than The Book People but the way they ship seems to make no sense. If I’d been ordering for a gift, I would have been angry at the vagueness of the shipping details. I assumed that because I was ordering in the UK, the books would be shipped from the UK but I have since discovered that ‘processing’ means that they are ‘searching the world’ for your book, and thus, making shipping unpredictable.

I also found out that the Book Depository was brought out in 2011 by Amazon and that made me angry for literally no reason at all.

In other news, Christmas is fast approaching and I have already done 2/3’s of my shopping. I feel no guilt or shame from doing this, despite all the glares and judgmental responses I’ve had to being organised and wanting to spread the cost of Christmas over more than just one month. I have brought over 20 books for various Christmas presents this year – I’m basically forcing books on other people and feeling no regret over it!

I have to include my little Freddie in this little catch up. Freddie is a 13 years old Italian Greyhounds and despite loving life, he is having a bit of a hard time. I think he’s possibly on more medication than I am now! His heart was beating too fast, so they’ve given him some medication to slow it down and he was coughing a lot because of water in his lungs, so they’ve given him some medication for that as well. Freddie has been gradually loosing his sight and now sees very little but he’s still enjoying life an a mischievous little mister! He got his nose in the bag I was using for all my tissues and chewed them up all over my bedroom floor! He has laser on his paw once a week as he has arthritis that causes his joints to lock. He doesn’t have many teeth left but he still loves playing with toys. Mostly, he can be found on my bed, snoring fit to burst, and nestled between pillows and blankets. Hopefully the medication he’s been put on works and I’ll have a good few more years with this little champ!

I’d love to know of any reading companions you have and what’s on your reading list for the rest of the month. Have you read anything I’d read/am going to read this month? Let me know.