Brian.

I’m just about to start a book I’ve wanted to read for a long time, The Fall of Yugoslavia by Misha Glenny.

I'll happily post you my copy if you would like it, its only going to a charity shop otherwise.

I have finished both. I felt that Wolf Hall never really got going for me. From the halfway point I was kind of done with it but I stuck it out as its much easier to do that with an audiobook. I won't be picking up anymore books in the series but I may watch the TV series that has come from it. Windswept and Interesting was a much better experience and I loved it. I've always liked Billy Connolly's standup and TV shows and this book is an extension of these. It took me no time to read this book and it had me laughing out loud on numerous occasions. I never knew that he was a very accomplished folk musician until I read the book.

I've made another attempt with Wolf Hall and this time I am making better progress. This time I am consuming the audiobook instead of the paperback. I'm still not loving it but I am finding it a bit easier to get along with. I've also made a start on Windswept & Interesting by Billy Connolly and so far I'm really enjoying it.

Our local WHSmith is a tip and has been for years so I am not surprised this is happening. It seems to be that they have tried to do everything and as a result their specialist competitors have done better.

If you are intending just to back up books and plan to stick them back on a kindle at some point you won’t need to do any DRM shenanigans.

I use a free program called Calibre to manage what is on my kindle and have done for years. It allows you to load ebooks from any source or any format onto a kindle or other e-reader and it also allows you to download any books off the kindle onto your computer. I believe it can also strip any DRM from an ebook but I’ve never done that so I can’t vouch for it. I’m not sure if Amazon will manage to block Calibre from being able to do this but it should work as a solution for a while at least.

Update time. I feel like I have struggled to read much in the last 3 or so weeks but have still finished 4 books so perhaps I am wrong. Anyway, on to the books. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (4/5) Wow, that was a ride. I have a funny relationship with Sci-Fi, I watch quite a lot of it but for some reason I can find the books harder to get along with. I knew literally nothing about this book apart from the fact that it is (or at least was) an award winner. Not knowing anything of the plot is not uncommon for me as I tend to avoid reading anything to do with a book before picking up if I can. I had made certain assumptions about this book based on the title, assumptions that were very wide of the mark. The story follows a terraforming ship in the future which has left earth with the intention of turning an uninhabital planet into one rich with life. To speed up this transformation they carry a virus which speeds up evolution in a group of monkeys they are carrying. Back on earth things are not great for the planet and there are terrorist factions very much against this kind of experiment. The plan doesn't go as they had hoped and the story jumps forward a few millon years where we pick up what has happened on the planet and what has become of earth. If I had known the plot beforehand I may not have read this but I am very glad I did. Making Books by Simon Goode & Ira Yonemura (4/5) This is a practical guide on the construction and techniques used in making books. The authors are the founders of the London Centre for Book Arts. The book is well written and covers all the basics (and some more advanced) techniques used in bookbinding. There are loads of really clear photographs detailing the stages which are very helpful in understanding what is going on. The Coming Storm by Gabriel Gatehouse (3/5) This is a non-fiction book based off of a podcast exploring of the roots of Q-Anon and the rise of the extreme right in the US. I had heard or Q-Anon and knew a little of the origins but hadn't paid any attention to the details. Having read this book I am still amazed that it managed to get traction in the USA but then critical thinking seems to be a thing of the past when it comes to modern politics across the world. One thing that really stands out is that any cover up by a political party or entity makes it a lot easier for the opposition to get fabricated stories about you believed. It also shows that social media is poison and is being used for political gain and greed but we all should know that by now anyway. I liked this book and it feels fairly level-headed but I wanted more depth and more detail. I felt like a but of a cash grab based off the popularity of the podcast. SS-GB by Len Deighton (3/5) I've read a handful of Deighton books in both the Harry Palmer and Bernard Samson series but before SS-GB none of his standalone novels. I love spy novels, especially those set during the cold war so was interested to see how he would deal with something a little different. In SS-GB the Nazis won the war in Europe and now occupy the UK. The king is in prison, Churchill has been executed, and post-war life carries on for the everyday people. The story follows Detective Inspector Archer who serves is a Scotland Yard murder detective. Although he is a police officer he is in a precarious position as all the bosses are Germans and want different things. He is sent to investigate when a body is found in a Mayfair flat and he is eventually caught up in a plot. The first thing I should say about this book is that I really stuggled to get into it. All the elements appeal to me as a reader and I like Deighton as a writer but it just wouldn't click with me. Had I been trying out a writer for the first time I may have put this aside for another time. Being Deighton I decided to stick with it and eventually it started to come together for me. I read the second half of the book much quicker than the first once I got settled with it. I think this might have been down to the fact that I didn't really gel with any of the characters and the plot took a while to establish itself. I'm glad I stuck with it though and I will probably watch the TV series now that I have finished the book.

I try to but if I'm honest I usually forget until I'm almost finished with the book.

I think Scotland and Ireland got the worst of it by what I've seen on the news.

I thought people might be interested in the process of making a traditionally bound book, in this case a notebook. The first notebook is one I am working on at home in parallel to my classes using what I have learned. The second is one I am making in my bookbinding classes. I don't have many of the tools used in class at home so I am improvising where I can. The groups of folded pages are called signatures, in this case these are made of sheets of A3 folded in half twice. It is important when doing this that when finished the grain of the paper runs from the head of the book to the tail. If you do not have the grain in this direction the paper is much weaker and the book can deform when pasted. Once folded the signatures are put in a press for a period of time to make the folds as tight as possible. This reduces the swell which occurs when using folded pages. Holes are pierced in the folds and the signatures stitched togther using a kettle stitch. Tapes are sewn in loose which adds strength to the spine which makes the book much more durable. Once this stage is complete the spine is pasted with PVA and allowed to dry. This helps hold the spine square in readiness for a process called rounding and backing. Once the PVA has set the edges are trimmed using a plough to ensure they are all cut to the same length and in square of each other. The next stage is rounding and backing. Rounding is when the spine is gently hit with a hammer to change the spine from square to a rounded shape. Once is has been rounded the spine is backed, this process involve hitting the egdes of the spine with a hammer to produce a shoulder the same thickness as the cover boards you will be using. Looking at the book along the spine it resembles a mushroom shape. This isn't my book but gives you an idea of the shape. In this picture the spine has been rounded and backed. Headbands have been pasted in place, the spine re-inforced with a material called mull and then further re-inforced with kraft paper. The next step here is to cut the cover boards to size but I ran out of time last night so it will have to wait until next week.

Will do. I’ll post some more photos of my bookbinding adventures. I’ve watched a bit of The Repair Shop but I haven’t seen any episodes he’s on so I’ll have to search them out. There are some great channels on YouTube, DAS bookbinding, and Four Keys Book Art in particular. There seems to be a growing trend for people rebinding paperbacks into hardback on YouTube at the moment with A Crown of Thrones and Roses being really popular for some reason. The problem with these rebinds is that although they look great the spines are really weak so won’t last the test of time. Despite that I have rebound Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan in the same way for a bit of fun.

The edition of Anna Karenina I've got at home is a used Penguin Classic that I picked up for £1. The translation is by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

Over the last few years I've taken an increasing interest in bookbinding. I have made a few notebooks for myself and others but wanted to learn more so I signed up for a bookbinding and restoration course. I recently picked up some books that have seen better days with the intention of either restoring them or rebinding them with new covers. One of the fascinating parts is the stuff that I sometimes find in books. Here is what my next project will be, a collection of Rudyard Kipling poetry from 1918. I'm not sure what approach I will take as it was originally bound with a softcover. Luckily while my course is running the instructor is always on hand to help and give advice.

I've currently got two books on the go, Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and SS-GB by Len Deighton.