ginty14

Black Hawk Down - Mark Bowden

Just been reading on Stephen Fry's latest blog entry (2/1/10 - 'Ave atque Vale') on his official site that he is following up on "Moab is My Washpot". Looking forward to that. (Sorry, can't put a direct link up yet. Maybe someone can pop one up for now to make it easier to find.)

One I completed a few months back and would recommend to anyone who likes bio's or business is Alice Schroeders biography of Warren Buffett - The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life". Weighs in at 976 pages in hardback , and isn't a difficult read at all - well written and very interesting throughout.

After a year or so of self-debating, I've recently taken the Ereader plunge on a Sony pocket Ereader, and am very, very impressed with it so far. It's so comfortable and light to hold, far easier on the thumbs, and needs so little effort to position it. You can read it comfortably on the floor or in bed with just one or 'no hands' which makes a reading session so much more comfortable. The display surface is superb - very easy to read on the eye, and being perfectly flat, you don't get any paper glare variations across the page like a book can. The arm and eye comfort is a very big plus for me, being an all-day strained computer user. With Epub files, the page turn is quicker than a book (for neatness-obsessed me, anyway!) , though converted files and pdf's can be a fraction slower, but nothing as distracting as sometimes claimed. Electronic bookmarking works very well, and don't misplace or fall out! Start up time could be quicker (about 30 seconds), but the comfort factor makes it very worthwhile. The battery life is astonishing, (4 books in and still halfway) and the portability, multiple book reading and storage saving speaks for itself. True, some Ebooks aren't cheap, hopefully that will come when stores wise-up a bit more, cross-check prices and scale their side up further. There's a vast number of offerings already on Waterstones, WHSmiths etc , and the downloading/transfering is quick. There are some real bargains about, many free classics and works by self-publishers etc. I'm already backlogged with downloads to read, actively looking to wider areas of interest as a result, and enjoying another way of reading. I still buy some regular books as the availabilty/price dictates, but always check for Ebooks now. It's not an either/or scenario after all. To me, it's broadened the whole experience of reading and offers another way - I've found it very liberating, especially the ability to read in a much more private and subtle way, allowing for books on subjects I would never have bought or read without attracting the unwelcome comments and opinions some people are determined to always offer. That was a big influence in taking the plunge for me, and boy, it works! I'd reccomend even the most anti-Ebook reader at least try to get a longish session with one to see the potential benefits. I'm sold on them, and can only see them adding value to the nation's reading long term.