READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

[LizG]

My Kobo e-reader died over the weekend. I've tried downloading my books from my Kobo library to epub format so I can load them onto my tablet and read using other software.

Kobo assures me that I can download in 3 formats, including e-pub, but the download comes as a "URLlink.acsm" file, which is useless, and doesn't give me a choice of file format. Does anyone have an idea how to get around this?

It's very annoying.

[Stanley]

Liz, I've copied that and posted it in 'computers' where the brains live.....

[Wendyf]

Have you downloaded the Kobo app onto your tablet Liz?

[LizG]

I have the Kobo app on my tablet but it relies on being connected to the internet to access it. I can access via read.kobo.com without the internet but again it relies on you having downloaded the book to the tablet first. I just think that if you have bought the books you should be able to get an epub version. I thought I'd cracked it by using Adobe Digital editions when I managed to get epub versions of the files but guess what... you can only read them using Adobe dig editions; they're still locked files. Frustrating!! I wanted to use the library I use for all my other books.

The reason is we're going on a caravan holiday for a couple of months at the end of June and can't rely on internet access being available. I'll keep at it.

[Stanley]

I am having no problem accessing my current book.... Mind you, it was a bit more expensive than a download, £126!

[LizG]

I was most annoyed because I had just purchased Longitude by Dava Sobel form Kobo and couldn't access it.

A little while ago a friend gave me 3,500 e-pub books that are zipped. As you can imagine it takes a while to trawl through the list to choose which ones to unzip. This morning I thought I'd check and I'm ashamed to say that Longitude was already sitting on my laptop waiting to be unzipped. I could have saved myself the stress not to mention the money. I spent a short time more and found another 3 that I had bought from Kobo. I think there is a lesson here!!

[Stanley]

I have almost finished David Omissi's book so I went into the Vatican Library yesterday and had a furtle. My next serious book will be Richard Crossman's Back Bench Diaries. A nice clean hardback that was always marked down for retirement reading.... Mind you, I might read a bit of fiction first for a relaxing interlude. These door-stoppers are great but you have to work at them!

[Stanley]

I've just started on Richard Crossman's Back Bench diaries. Another door-stopper, over 1000 pages.
But, as I promised, I allowed myself a shorter read to clear my head of Air Policing. I Got out my copy of 'One Good Turn. A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw' by Witold Ribczynski, published in 2000 and a treasure of a book, full of new research and giving a good overall view of the subject. I recommend it to all of you, you don't need to be an engineer to enjoy this.

[Tripps]

You've done well with your Omissi book - a quick look shows you have at least doubled your money.
I still have a copy of the email I sent him encouraging him to re-publish his work. I was more interested in his India stuff. I tempted fate by saying he could ignore me if he was too busy - and sure enough - he did.

[Stanley]

David, you're right about the need for a reprint of 'Air Power'. The fault lies with Manchester University Press, for some reason they hate reprints!
Just had a look at Bookfinder and you're right! The cheapest is £239 and the most expensive £788, many of them ex-libris with marks and stamps. Mine is near perfect, just a small water stain at the bottom of the spine but complete with a good DJ and no markings at all. So I wasn't so daft after all!
Here's a good quote for you from Crossman's Back Bench Diaries.

QUOTATION FROM BACK BENCH DIARIES OF RICHARD CROSSMAN (PAGE 36)

“One of the difficulties with politics is that politicians are shocked by those who are really prepared to let their thinking reach any conclusion. 'Political thinking' consists on deciding the conclusion first, and than finding good evidence for it. An open mind is considered irresponsible – and perhaps it really is.”

[Stanley]

Crossman is fascinating. The picture he paints of political cliques formulating policy and pushing events forward in small back rooms reminds me of Harold Nicholson's diaries. I suppose that this is exactly how things are managed now in the Westminster Bubble. Quite depressing if this is the case because things were more openly debated in the press in the 1950s than they are now. Politician/journalists promoted their views in meaty articles. Crossman was one of these and on the Left, a Bevanite. He is holding my interest!

[Stanley]

I'm still ploughing through Crossman despite the difficulties... They tell me that using the eye is good for it. Fascinating account of how party and national politics worked in the 50s and 60s and I have little doubt much the same today.... Bit like an iceberg, we only see a small proportion of what is happening, the rest is going on below the surface.

[Stanley]

Nearly finished the Diaries. Richard Crossman comes across as an intellectual who at times had a very low regard for those not on his level. Another thing that strikes me is the role of food and drink in [politics in the 50s and 60s. Anyone who didn't drink was regarded as slightly suspect. 'In Vino Veritas' seems to have been an accepted principle and strong drink was often the lubricant which led opponents into indiscretions. It was used almost as a truth drug. I don't doubt the same thing applies today. Fascinating insights into the way things worked and I have the Diaries of a Cabinet Minister to come!
My book on invisible writing is in the post....

[Stanley]

I finished the Diaries yesterday and started on the Diaries of a Cabinet Minister. It's fairly obvious that Crossman didn't believe we had a proper democracy because the voters didn't know how decisions were arrived at. He described it as government by oligarchs, in other words by the people who had the power and the influence. He wrote his diaries to show people what actually went on. I have always wondered about this since I read Harold Nicholson's Diaries and found how much policy was actually decided at select dinner parties at Cliveden where Lady Astor held court in the 1930s. I'm looking forward to the Cabinet Minister because Crossman himself said how surprised he was when he got into government and found out how much power the Civil Service and the 'Official View' had and how this influenced the course of government policies. All I can say is that I have left it a bit late to get the evidence!

[Stanley]

The book on Invisible Writing arrived yesterday. I am giving Richard Crossman a holiday while it read it for lighter entertainment.

[Stanley]

'Prisoners, Lovers and Spies' by Kristie Macrakis is an interesting and well researched book. Full of fascinating things I didn't know. I am enjoying it!

[Stanley]

Finished the Macrakis book on secret writing. I recommend it to anyone who likes a good interesting read. Back to Richard Crossman and the Cabinet Minister Diaries now....

[Stanley]

Despite my current handicap I finished Crossman's Cabinet Minister Diaries yesterday. I can see why, after his death, the government tried to stop publication but failed. As Crossman himself found out while still in the Cabinet, Cabinet Ministers cannot be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act and have the right to be given untrammelled access to any papers they wish. I have little doubt that the intrigues and in-fighting he describes are still typical of today's politics. Public Information was restricted, censored and sometimes deliberately obfuscated.
Triggered by the latest instalments of the Diaries of Samuel Pepys I have got mine off the shelf. I shall start with Claire Tomalin's 2002 version because it is the largest print!

[Stanley]

Things are getting serious as the pile of books to read grows... Hopefully the eye test today will herald an improvement!

[Tripps]

I remembered reading a library book years ago about crime in the second World War. Now thanks to the miracle of the internet and ebay - I've identified it and ordered it. "War Crimes - Underworld Britain in the Second World War". I remember thinking that the author of Foyle's War must have read it, and got some of his plot lines from it.. Now here's the coincidence - It is written by M J Trow - an author recommended by Tizer a while ago. That was for fiction if I recall - this is quite the opposite.
£3.57 will bring it to my letterbox later this week. Awesome.
(They say that word has replaced marvellous in the last few years.)

[Stanley]

Have a look at Donald Thomas, 'An underworld at war'. Here it is on Bookfinder for less than £3. LINK.
[Notice that I did not say 'should' or 'need to'......]

[Tripps]

Thanks for that. Having checked your recommendation out - It may even have been the book I read from the library. I'll wait for the other one to arrive, then decide if i need it, . There is a particular piece of information in it which will identify it for me.

[Tizer]

Melanie Reid, writing in The Times, has reviewed `How to Speak Money' by John Lanchester, due to be released tomorrow (Tuesday). She gives it a very strong recommendation and, judging from the review, it exposes the way the finance world uses words to fool us into thinking they are doing the opposite of what they're really up to. For example, talking about our `credit' when they really mean `debt'. Cunning wheezes!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Speak-Money ... 057130981X

[Stanley]

Dead right, isn't it funny how you learn things by reading.....

[Stanley]

I've hit a bit of a problem with my reading. As far as vision is concerned it's now possible but difficult because of the distortion in my right eye. I have ditched the large pile of books to read and am concentrating on only one, Uncle Bob's recommendation, 'A House for Mr Biswas' by V S Naipaul. I can manage but it's hard work. Even harder is the realisation that watching videos on the computer is addictive! They have been a good filler over the last few weeks but are too easy and I find I have to stop myself when the urge comes to log on to You Tube!
I shall overcome this glitch but the warning is clear and I have taken note!