Is life too short for adult colouring books ?

Aside from the rather dubious description ( doesn't adult always imply something a little raunchy ? ) is this new craze just that or is it here to stay and anyway, haven't we got better things to do with our time ?

I find myself occasionally lured towards them and I think I may even have bought one once. I then realise that, in the scheme of things, haven't I got a year's worth of ironing to do and aren't there some toilets that need cleaning somewhere in the house ?

As it's Christmas, I did a little online investigating -  Window (or rather Mac) shopping rather than actually buying and came up with my three favourite titles should I ever find myself laid up in hospital for a month in traction only able to move my arms and within grasping distance of a boxed set of Caran D'Ache.

First on the list has to be The Liberty Colouring book - sold out at www.libertylondon.com ( oh come on surely that should be dot co.uk - is nothing sacred ? ) amazingly despite its hefty price tag but hilariously available second hand on Amazon as 'used' . Does that mean we get to have a laugh at someone's feeble attempts at colouring before they decided to sell it on ?

The seller is probably like me - felt compelled to buy one to see what all the fuss was about then ditched the idea after ten minutes of going hopelessly over the lines.

The next offering is this jokey little title - destined to be great stocking filler but should be appearing in the charity shop windows by the first week of January 2017.

As the blurb reads on the inside cover - there must be something very satisfying , if you've had the day from hell, in sitting down with a clutch of felt pens colouring in the word a***hole.

Evidently keen to squeeze every last drop of spin-off merchansiing potential from this series. Presumably requires scented pencils ?

Frankly I'd rather ...

• give LIberty's a wide berth ( over-priced, over crowded and now run by an American FFS)  
• articulate the word a***hole at a deserving case rather than colour it in ( would that have to be brown ? )
• go buy a shed load of donuts rather than salivate at an intricate outline drawing of a croquembouche or whatever it's called 

.... than shell out hard earned cash for any of these but it was fun looking all the same.