I’m currently observing one of my semi-regular book buying moratoriums. When my to-be-read pile gets a little out of control I stop purchasing new books until it’s down to a more respectable figure. It’s currently at one hundred and (mumble, mumble) and it’s going to be a while…
Catch Your Death
28 March 2012 by Leave a Comment
The rise of the ebook has led to an explosion in self-published authors. I must admit I have a shiver of nervousness each time I see a self-published book, I tend to assume that if an author doesn’t already have a book deal there’s probably a good reason…
Rent a book on your Kindle?
15 September 2011 by 1 Comment
According to The Telegraph, Amazon is currently in talks with publishers to launch a digital book rental service similar to Netflix. For an annual fee readers will have access to a huge number of ebooks. Sounds like another nail in the coffin for both the traditional printed book and the library service as we know it….
Burly & Grum and the Secret City
8 August 2011 by Leave a Comment
A children’s book with a good message – but not a good book
One of my passions is animal welfare. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve found zoos utterly repellent and the recent debate in Parliament on banning the use of wild animals in circuses sent me into a frenzy. A charity very close to my heart is the Born Free Foundation which campaigns to free animals from captivity and return them to their natural environment. Founded by actress Virginia McKenna they do a lot of great work and I urge you to find out more about them.
On Friday Born Free invited supporters to read the children’s ebook Burly & Grum and the Secret City by Kate Tenbeth. I was immediately intrigued – a book I could read in a couple of hours which had a strong animal welfare message seemed like my idea of Monday morning fun (no – really it did)…
Top Ten: The Kindle – Bargain Books at Charity Shop Prices
5 August 2011 by 3 Comments
When I first got my iPad I immediately fell in love with it. There was so much I could do on it and the capacity for playing games was immense. I did download some free classic novels on the iBooks application but I never got round to reading them. I assumed that I wouldn’t enjoy books on an e-reader – I preferred the look, feel and smell of a real book. Then I discovered the rival Kindle App and all of that changed. I realised I could carry lots of books everywhere I went. Packing for holidays would no longer be traumatic as weight was no longer an issue. Best of all there is a great selection of cheap books to choose from – have a look, you’ll see that it’s easy to spend very little but get a lot of good reads.
Here are 10 books I’ve recently read on my Kindle:
1. Love, Sex and Tesco’s Finest Cava by Steve Carter
It was the unwieldy title and the thought of how anyone could enjoy Tesco Cava that attracted me to this book. The narrator Rob is 38 and newly divorced for the second time when he meets a new woman on an online dating site, this novel charts the ups and downs of their blossoming relationship and how this impacts on both their families. This is a great little book, full of humour and interesting characters and it’s good to read a romantic comedy from the man’s point of view. I read this in one day on holiday and it’s the perfect beach or lazy weekend read.
2. The Warsaw Anagrams by Richard Zimler
I had read one of Richard Zimler’s previous novels for work in my old job and really enjoyed it so this instantly appealed to me. A gripping thriller set in 1940 in the Warsaw Ghetto this novel explores the themes of loss, alienation, betrayal and brutality and tells the story of a crime set against the background of the greatest crime against humanity ever. This is both a moving account of the Holocaust and a fantastic crime story.