I was just thinking to myself that there should be a rule that when this is the view from your office window, you’re allowed to go home. How did I ever manage nights?

Since I’m a photo behind and need to make up the numbers, and since I’m on a roll of Christmas-retail themed moans…

How insulting is this Argos campaign?! In the spirit of equality, I look forward to next year’s “Keep Calm Women” follow-up. I assume it will perpetuate a ditzy, dim, over-excitable, self-obsessed stereotype of women that’s as insulting as the lazy, dunderheaded, disorganised, misogynist stereotype of men perpetuated this year by retailers like Argos and Asda.

But I like to think that they will see sense and reflect the reality of 21st century life in the UK. After all, isn’t this the season of hope?

It seems that WHSmith have started their Easter campaign. Depressing, isn’t it? And I would (perhaps naively) have thought that reminding consumers of another retail-driven spending spree around the corner would depress Christmas spending.

But with a mere 106 days left for customers to get their hands on some themed chocolate, who can blame them for trying?

I’ve complained about Tesco piling up alcohol at the entrance before, as it really doesn’t strike me as responsible marketing. But today, the display was the biggest I’ve seen. I struggled to take a photo – as you can see – that captured the amount of alcohol there was on offer.

It’s interesting that Asda agreed in 2011 to stop this kind of thing, and Morrisons has started putting fruit and veg offers at the front of their stores, yet Tesco still persists with an attitude of pile-them-remarkably-high and sell-them-remarkably-cheap when it comes to alcohol.

This week’s recommendation is from Texas Monthly: it’s a fascinating and engaging analysis of Southwest Airlines and the reasons behind the success of the airline, even in times of recession. It’s by Sam Gwynne.

This is the building I was heading to in Sunderland yesterday… I did eventually arrive!

Spotted in Sunderland earlier today whilst completely lost! I always get lost when I go to Sunderland city centre… it’s as if they’ve not yet discovered directional signage for pedestrians!

Last week, I featured David Mitchell the comedian. In his book, he complains about being mistake for David Mitchell the author. So this week, I reasoned, why not feature Cloud Atlas? It’s another book that’s “now a major motion picture” – but I haven’t seen it, so that can’t upset me.

I really liked Cloud Atlas. It has a lovely central message, which is continually revisited and all brought together nicely at the end, and the quality and style of the language over hundreds of years seems spot-on. I’m not enough of a student of literature to know whether it is spot-on, but it was certainly good enough to convince me.

The book is essentially constructed of six smaller books, each interrupted at a crucial moment in their story – one even midsentence – and returned to again later. The story spans from the 1800s right through to a distant future, with each of the different small books being about a different time period, and written in the style of that time period. This sort of Calvino-esque style could have been gimicky and poorly written, but it actually worked quite well. Mitchell clearly has the talent required to construct such a story of such lofty ambition, and to transcend both styles and genres. And the unusual format is handled so deftly that it almost faded into the background once I got engrossed in the plot.

That said, this isn’t Calvino. For example, whilst If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller is also a collections of interrupted stories-within-stories, Cloud Atlas is far more accessible and populist, losing all the self-referential surreal genius that makes the former a masterpiece. Cloud Atlas isn’t Dan Brown-esque, you understand – it does maintain some literary merit, and has some worthy themes and messages. It’s accessible without being trashy.

All things considered, I’d highly recommend this book. Having said that, given the massive hit it’s already been, if you were going to read it you probably already have…! I was going to suggest revisiting it over Christmas, but I’m not sure it has the depth to sustain a second reading. Still, it’s pretty good.

Cloud Atlas is available now from amazon.co.uk in paperback and on Kindle.

Wendy and I have been writing Christmas cards tonight. Most years, we’d have had them sent out about a week ago, but we seem to be running late on most Christmas preparations this year! And we didn’t even manage to get the cards finished tonight!

I had a slight panic that they might be just too big for a normal stamp, too. But having measured very carefully with the official Royal Mail size guide, I’m confident that they don’t quite need large letter stamps – though it’s a close run thing. Let’s hope I’m right, or we’re about to annoy quite a lot of people with excess postage charges!

Wendy bought me this brilliantly whimsical money box a few years ago now… I think it’s great!