If you don't want to order all of your Christmasy stuff online, you need to hit the stores in the second week of November. And you'd better take a deep breath and roll your sleeves up. I'm a bit of a stationery addict, as I've probably mentioned this here, but the crowd in the stationery store almost draisn my enthusiasm dry every November.

Magical things are happening though at this time of the year. A relatively wide selection of novels has recently arrived in the tiny bookshop I frequent, as you'd expect from such an establishment all year round. As I'm your litfic girl (and thriller/crime girl), I like to leaf through books before buying them. I also appreciate spotting unknown gems on the shelves. So a wider choice is really a blessing. It's a wondrous feeling before Christmas. Wisely I availed myself of the arrival of new books immediately. There's another, a mystery, person who makes litfict disappear from the bookstore, so I needed to act promptly. Moneywise this means there will be no "Bookshopping before Christmas" in December.

The hustle and bustle was bearable in the tiny bookshop.

Art by Bri Buckley

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Complete with the Christmassy displays in the shop windows and gorgeous gift boxes in the drugstores, all this high-spirited two-month frolicking will have a blacklash in the form of the dreaded January Blues next year. I'm working on the antidote, I promise.