Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda

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Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

It is nearly the end of the year.  I am looking forward to posting my books of the year and recycling some content over a Christmas break so that I read some books I am looking forward to without as much pressure.

So I looked through the books I was currently reading and decided I just do not want to finish Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda.

It is not that TE Lawrence is not interesting.  He is fascinating.  And Korda tries (although not quite as successfully as I had hoped) to be a story telling biographer more like Laura Hillenbrand (Unbroken and Seabiscut) than monumental biographer like William Manchester’s three volume biography of Churchhill.

Korda starts with an exciting couple of battles during WWI and then goes back and gives us a brief look at his childhood.  Returns to WWI and stays in WWI for a long time.  I gave up the book when I had completed about 8 hours of 14 hours on audiobook.

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Independent Bookstores Doing Well – New York Times Article

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The New York Time books section had an article yesterday about Independent book stores.  And it was actually fairly up beat.  The summary is that, even though there were no big breakout books this Christmas, independent books stores are actually doing fairly well.  And the Kobo partnership with independent bookstores to sell Kobo ereaders and have people … Read more

Review: Verso Prologue Cover

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Verso Prologue coverThe Verso Prologue Cover for Amazon Kindle has changed my mind about using a cover. I have used this cover for nearly three months now.

What I do not traditionally like about using a cover with the kindle is that it usually doubles (or more) the weight and it does not fold back well so that it it is uncomfortable to hold one handed.

However, the Verso Prologue is amazingly light.  It looks like it should be a fairly heavy leather cover.  But it is not.  The inside of the cover has to be some type of hard foam.  It will flex slightly, but it withstands a good bit of abuse.

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Win $100 Amazon Gift Card from Lendle.me

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I am a fan of book lending sites like Lendle.me.  I updated the review a couple months ago.  Since then Lendle has undergone a change in ownership.  So far there are only minor changes.  The emails notifications have been updated.  And there is now a weekly email. Lendle has started a new Facebook Fan page … Read more

Review: Amazon Paperwhite Leather Cover

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Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Leather CoverI am not a big fan of covers for kindles.  In general I like to use them without a cover.  But the most common problem with kindle is a cracked screen and covers really can help with that.

Over the next three days I am going to review the three covers I have used recently.

I do not now own a Kindle Paperwhite.  But twice in the last two months I have helped a friend replace a broken kindle with a new Paperwhite.  That has given me several weeks to play with the Paperwhite and try out the covers.

The official Amazon Paperwhite Leather cover is a totally different type of cover from the covers that Amazon made for the first three generations of Kindle.  Instead of the elastic corners of the first two generations and the prongs of the third generation, this cover uses a rubberized plastic that is form fitted to the size of the kindle.  (In the picture to the side the outer line around the kindle is the rubberized plastic holder.)

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