Let the Catch-Up Begin!

Finally my exams are over - and yes, I went through all the question papers with my red pen! - and, now that I’ve finished all the newspapers and associated puzzles that went uncompleted, I can get back to reading and reviewing. I’ve got a ton of both; five days left in the month and I still have to read a book each for the Banned Book, Non-Fiction 5, and TBR Challenges. I’m two reviews in arrears. Plus I have to finish Persuasion. And my library books (only three this time). My TBR box is still overflowing. And I have scarcely so much as looked at a blog in about two weeks. There’s enough to keep me going all holidays and then some, and that’s without all the non-book things on my to do list.

So it’s perhaps fortunate that the weather forecast for the next few days is miserable (by Brisbane standards, at least, which is still nearly double the temperature of my hometown). I actually sort of miss Canberra’s freezing winters; at least when the temperature’s in single figures there’s no hesitation over whether or not to put the heater on. When it’s mid-to-high teens you feel a little guilty about running up the power bill, meaning that ever since winter arrived my mother and I have taken to wearing woolly jumpers and scarves indoors. But this does create a perfect excuse to snuggle under my newly-completed afghan with a good book (or a laptop). It also creates the worrying thought that I might actually be acclimatising to the subtropics, and if I stay here much longer I’ll start thinking it’s cooling down whenever it drops below 25.

It occurs to me that the simple solution to all this would be to a. buy fewer books, and b. join fewer challenges. But where would be the fun in that?