Love the Web, but books are better - and TV of course

(these are just some of the books by my bed I will get through eventually)

I do love a good book.  Unfortunately I try to read too many at once (I'm in the middle of four at the moment), which is another symptom of my "ooh look and the bright shiny thing" syndrome.  But as I've been set a task for one of these books, I'm promising myself to get through one at a time, starting with:

(this is me multitasking in bed - book, choc, tv, laptop all in bed)

My Notorious Life by Madame X - a book by Kate Manning which is for a review with the wonderful guys at Soup.  I'm quite enjoying it as it's based on a true story about a woman in New York City during the late 1880's who became infamous for being a midwife who not only helped women with birthing but also with birth control and also terminations.  The style is written as if it was from Madame X's journals and some of the words are annoyingly asterisk'ed out which is supposed to reflect the times when a lot of literature was censored but I believe (and 99% of the other reviewers on the Soup forum) as it was written based on a personal journal, it realistically should not be censored.  And it wasn't referring to words that we all haven't heard before - particularly the medical terms!

(find Kaz Cooke's ebooks here)

Another bright and shiny thing that had me occupied the other night when I really should have been cleaning out my laptop (and no, that's not code), is one of my favourite authors, Kaz Cooke, has brought out really useful ebooks for us all.  She was a bit of a lifesaver back when I was first expecting, with her book "Up The Duff" - so much more practical than all those other pregnancy bibles, it's a good chuckle and written in a language I could relate to.  I highly recommend checking out these very inexpensive ebooks and if you know someone who could use the free "Escaping Control & Abuse: How to Get Out of a Bad Relationship & Recover From Assault", please pass it on.  I'm not in any sort of sponsorship deal or even know Kaz Cooke personally, I just really admire her work.

Now seeing I'm writing this while watching TV, I need to have a bit about what I'm enjoying at the moment.  Right this moment I'm laughing at Alan Carr: The Chatty Man.  He's talking to Jennifer Saunders who I've always loved, way back when she was 'French & Saunders' (I still sing that phrase every time instead of saying it - look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about) to being obsessed with Absolutely Fabulous to the extent I video taped every episode when it aired on TV the first time.

(here's a clip of the best of Series 1 & 2)

So there's a little bit of what I've been reading, browsing and watching lately.  And it's a great distraction from my Mess Makeover project which after the shopping at Ikea part became quite frustrating when I couldn't work out how to use the sewing machine - big domestic fail.  But here's a hint of what it might look like in the end:

*Joining With Some Grace FYBF*