Hello, my lovelies!
Yep, I'm sick. Days after seeing my mother for her birthday I felt off, and now I'm struggling with a shocker of a head cold that has me crunching on Sugar-Free Vitamin Cs, guzzling water like it was going out of fashion, and periodically topping my system up with black tea and sugar-free Strepsils. Ugh.
However, this has left me with a lot of time to read - if my eyes aren't already complaining, that is. I've been mowing through some cozy mysteries from KU. There have been some standouts - Murder in a Yorkshire Village by Helena Dixon and Whispering Winds by PL Matthews - but also some real duds. There really is a fine line in self publishing. Today, as my cheekbones felt like they were trying to divorce themselves from my face at one point, I finally got around to editing the first part of my 6 month book haul. Honestly, it's August now, so I should be saying my 8 month book haul (will fix that in 2nd round of editing), and although I mention my head cold, I really didn't seem to be suffering as much on camera as I was IRL. Just goes to show that the camera truly does tell some porky pies.
On the reading front, I am still procrastinating over my #aclassicamonth offering. I listened to The Picture of Dorian Gray a few years ago, but it seemingly went in one ear and out the other - I do not listen to audiobooks on first consumption for this reason - and yet although I just want to get it done with, I'm not really in the mood for a classic. I have been dipping my toes into the realm of LitRPG books. Dungeon Crawler Carl is such a banger, and I really enjoyed a recent read, The Pun Farmer, which isn't quite as full on as a lot of the other LitRPG books I've dabbled in, and has a charming cottagecore, cozy romance vibe to it... so maybe more LitRPG adjacent. Cozy LitRPG? Will have to grab the next book in the series, The Pun Chef, at some point just to see if it is just as good.
Then there was the latest Kitty Underhay Mystery (Murder in a Yorkshire Village) that I found myself devouring yesterday. I have found myself gravitating towards a lot of the historical cozy mysteries over the last few years. I find the lack of technology, which often makes a modern cozy setting annoying as they can access information at the touch of a mobile phone as well as being in constant contact with others, so refreshing. As a child of the 80s all the media I consumed, for the most part, was mobile phone free, and computers were not common. Ah, the good ol days of not being tethered to a phone, social media, or the 24 hour news cycle.
Oh, side note: before I came down with the head cold part, I just managed to get the final clear coat on the first 3 stained board shelves in the book room. I can't believe I still have 5 more shelves on the short side to go before tackling the 8 x 8ft boards on the long side. I have a feeling I'll be moving books, staining, sanding and painting until nearly Christmas at this rate ;P On the plus side, this has let me go through the books yet another time to weed out more books. My collection is ridiculously large, and I've been holding onto books for decades. I also have been discovering some sneaky duplicates, but never fear!, I will be moving them on... unless they are either a signed, special or nostalgic copy.
Anyway, my cup of tea is cool enough to drink now, and I'm honestly starting to doze off. Fingers crossed that my head cold will only hang around for another couple more days, and I can get back on track after the weekend. If you have any good book recommendations, or any ideas for a post, then drop them in the comment section below, and until I see you next time,
