Shouting from the Shed 112

• I’ve set up a discount system on my book shop so that if you buy an extra book you get a 10% discount, buy 2 books for a 20% discount, and so on up to 5 extra books for 50% discount. I have no idea whether this is a good idea. I also haven’t really worked out a concise way to explain it! (But Christmas is coming, and I’ve written six books for children….)
  
• If (like me) you’re a grumpy curmudgeon about people trying to sell you Christmas stuff too soon (see above), be assured this is not new. Cue Seneca, the Roman philosopher, grumbling 2000 years ago: “It is the month of December, and yet the city is at this very moment in a sweat. Licence is given to the general merrymaking. Everything resounds with mighty preparations, – as if the Saturnalia differed at all from the usual business day! So true it is that the difference is nil, that I regard as correct the remark of the man who said: “Once December was a month; now it is a year.”
• Microadventures, the audible book, is going to be reduced to just £1.99 for 24 hours on Monday (it’s usually £13).
• I really enjoyed chatting on the longform (and excellent) Adventure Podcast about seeking adventures closer to home.
• I dream of living a slow rustic life cooking enormous feasts, like this family. (Discovered via the SwissMiss newsletter.)
• Was it madder to bungee jump off a bridge or live a humdrum life? The obituary of the eccentric, carefree founder of The Dangerous Sports Club.
• Do you feel the need for some ‘Beautiful News’ today? All sorts of good, positive stuff on here.
• Lazy: a manifesto.
• Would you rather cycle around the world really fast or really slow? Jenny Graham (World Speedy Record Holder) and I battle it out.
• This short video took rather longer to make than I had anticipated, and ended up looking more like a rubbish green screen fake than I had eagerly imagined in my mind when I started! But I hope that it persuades you to buy your local map as a Christmas gift for your friends and family and get exploring your neighbourhood next year...

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