View source for Colour Me Mindful: Birds by Anastasia Catris

{{infobox1
|title=Colour Me Mindful: Birds
|author=Anastasia Catris
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crafts
|summary=A colouring book for adults which you could pop into a bag and which doesn't cost the earth. Great, relaxing fun.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=No
|pages=64
|publisher=Orion
|date=July 2015
|isbn=978-1409163107
|website=http://anastasiacatris.com/
|cover=1409163105
|aznuk=1409163105
|aznus=1409163105
}}

About half a century ago I mentioned to someone that colouring was relaxing and enjoyable and received a lecture on my lack of creativity and willingness to use what other people had drawn for my own ends.  I still did colouring - at a time when there were considerable pressures in my life over which I had no control - but it was just that it became my guilty secret.  Now colouring is mainstream and there's a considerable range of design books to choose from.  Orion have published three by Anastasia Catris: this book, {{amazonurl|isbn=1409163067|title=Colour Me Mindful: Underwater}} and {{amazonurl|isbn=1409163083|title=Colour Me Mindful: Tropical}}.  So, how do they stand out from the crowd?

The use of ''mindfulness'' in the title will attract a lot of people, but I don't think that there's anything in this particular series of books which is more ''mindful'' than other books which I've seen. Ana Catris is a professional illustrator who is an advocate of art therapy and of the calming power of colouring.  I'd agree wholeheartedly with that: it certainly applies to these books as well as to other colouring books which we've seen.  The argument is that if you colour with focus and attention you will become mindful and stress and tension will fade.  I tend to colour whilst allowing my mind to float where it will, which has occasionally allowed me to sort out problems which were proving intractable when approached head on.  The choice is yours!

The designs are delightful and being in a smaller book (it's 17cm square) they don't take quite so long to complete as with some of the larger books which we've seen.  The individual designs tend not to be quite so complex either and this was certainly to my taste.  It also means that the book will fit in a bag for those 'waiting room' moments although the soft cover does mean that you need something to rest on.

I had great fun colouring a page of birds on perches.  It did mean breaking the spine of the book to get into the 'gutter' and I would have liked to be able to remove the page - gone are the days when this was my guilty pleasure - but that would need the use of a razor or something similar and you would lose the design on the other side.  I was rather pleased to find that some designs are mirrored onto the opposite page - I can imagine having great fun with that.  There's a treat for another day - I've lined up a penguin design.

The books have another advantage in that they are modestly priced at a £4.99 cover price and each provide about 58 designs: that's a lot of fun for not very much money!

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending copies of the three books to the Bookbag.

If you're looking for a BIG colouring book then have a look at [[The Big Beautiful Colouring Book by Hannah Davies]].  [[The Creative Colouring Book for Grown-Ups]] has a reasonably firm back if you want to take it with you when travelling.  For a tough challenge try [[Field Guide: Creatures Great and Small (Field Guides) by Lucy Engelman]].

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