When I was a kid, I drew a lot. In those hours when I didn’t feel like drawing or working on a drawing issue (horses are difficult), I would turn to colouring books. I loved them. I was very good at neatly filling in helpfully bold outlines and the suspence would gather as more and more coloured bits joined together as a whole.

There were so many discoveries involved in the process: childish fingers learning to use thin-tipped pens and pencils, sharpening crayons, rebellious departures from the established dress colours of Disney Princesses. My neatness sometimes resulted in harder pressure and I quickly found out that the colouring books with thinner paper didn’t take kindly to this. I also had a series of real books meant for reading, but with colourless illustrations meant for colouring – my joy knew no bounds. It felt like I had participated in creating the story.

This happy past-time gradually ceased for quite a while. Until I was reading a magazine article the other day that said colouring books for adults are all the rage now! Wait, what?! And this has been going on for some time?!

A quick search online confirmed this fantastic news. From celebrities to TV shows to shoes (oh, yes, oh, the sweet rapture), the topics spectrum is very broad. Sainsbury’s in the UK said at the end of August that over a million of these colouring books have been sold since April. Consumers are enthusiastic about the de-stressing aspect colouring provides and shops are expanding their stock to keep up with the demand that shows no signs of stopping. Popularity is rising across the U.S. as well. The world has remembered.

Buzzfeed has put together an inspiring guide that’s a good stop for those of you making a choice. Based on the first look, I’m intrigued by Secret Garden by Johanna Basford (she’s created quite a few intricate looking colouring books with a nature theme). It’s on the Amazon.co.uk bestseller list in this category. The Midnight Colouring Book by Richard Merrit makes my fingers itch to live out the love for Cirque du Soleil on paper.