Sunday afternoon

There's a bit of a chill in the air and it's almost time to keep a pair of gloves in your pocket. Or, in my case, a bag as one will keep falling out and I'm not mad or desperate enough to wear odd gloves in public yet. I'm having an afternoon off from The Whicharts and Five Farthings and working my way through the weekend papers. The way that some broadsheets carry on you'd think that people didn't buy books for the rest of the year. I know that isn't true, though I do see a rise in orders now-ish and again after Christmas. I'm not sure why people seem to buy more after Christmas - perhaps they've received a nice cheque or perhaps they just weren't given the books they wanted in spite of the Amazon wishlist which is a very useful invention. As well as reading the book reviews, I'm also flicking through the themed gift lists that mushroom around this time of year. Well, it's good advertising. I think The Observer have the best so far - they've themed it round fans of television programmes and popular culture. It might help the families of Downton Abbey fans and possibly avoid the reality of the period drama fan unwrapping three copies of the same box set.