Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family by Marian Keyes

Blurb

For all fans eagerly awaiting Marian Keyes’ new novel The Mystery of Mercy Close – featuring Helen Walsh and out in September 2012 – here is an irresistible ebook-only guide to everyone’s favourite dysfunctional Irish family, Mammy Walsh’s A–Z of the Walshes.

It does exactly what it says on the tin but here’s a brief word from its author, Mammy Walsh herself:

‘There’s this woman I know from bridge, Mona Hopkins, a lovely woman she is, even if I must admit I’m not that keen on her myself, and she said a great thing the other day. I was expecting her to say “Two no trumps,” but instead she comes out with a saying about her children. She says, “Boys wreck your house and girls wreck your head.” Isn’t that a marvellous bit of wisdom – “Boys wreck your house and girls wreck your head!” And God knows it’s the truest thing I’ve heard in a long time. I should know. I have five girls. Five daughters. And let me tell you, my head is wrecked from them. Although, now that I think of it, so is my house . . .’

My Perspective

This was a short little e-Book that was actually my first purchase on my Kobo Touch e-Reader. I have only just read it now!

The e-Book is written by Mammy Walsh (really Marian Keyes), mother of the five Walsh sisters who each have their own novel written by Marian Keyes. It is just a short little e-Book of her opinions on life, her neighbours, and her family, especially her five daughters. Having read all of the Walsh sisters’ books, i found it very funny however i think that even if you hadn’t you would still find it amusing. If you get highly offended over certain things, i might not recommend it however i think if that’s the case you really need to get over it.

I would definitely recommend this eBook as a light, funny read that will entertain you. There were many ‘laugh out loud’ moments for me.

The Saga Continues…

Well i hope that this isn’t going to be a continuing saga!

I opened Kobo Desktop the other day and look what popped up:

So my previous post, I Might Have Jumped The Gun…, well i didn’t, did i?

I would like to take the credit for Kobo doing this, that they read my review of their product, Kobo Touch eReader, and made the necessary updates. Unfortunately, i don’t think so.

Oh well. All’s well that ends well. I got what i wanted, didn’t i?

I Might Have Jumped The Gun…

So the other day i bought an eBook through Kobo Desktop; Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family by Marian Keyes (which i will obviously review when i read it).

Before i synced my Kobo Desktop with my Kobo Touch eReader, i realised that i had the book, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, on my eReader (i had downloaded it for free). In my “Yay, free eBooks!” frenzy, i had downloaded a book that not only have i read multiple times but that i own already. So obviously i deleted it. And then i plugged in my eReader to sync.

And would you believe? This popped up:

If you read my post; Kobo Touch eReader, then you will know that i wrote an extremely lengthy review on what i thought of my new eReader, and that the lengthiest part of my review was my complaint that you couldn’t have a library full of eBooks and only sync select eBooks to your eReader, you had to sync all of your eBooks from your library onto your eReader (if you read the previous post then this one will make sense).

However from the screen shot above, well, either they read my review and did something about it, or i just feel very silly right now. Granted, i did read the WHOLE Kobo Touch eReader instruction manual (which i would like to add didn’t come with my eReader – i had to find it on the Kobo website and download it). However i suppose i should have looked for the Kobo Desktop instruction manual as well and read that too. Then i would have known and i wouldn’t be in this rather embarrassing situation.

There is one thing that niggles me though, right before this happened, both Kobo Desktop and my eReader required an update, which i did. So was the above part of the update or has it been there all along? I guess I’ll never know.

And why didn’t anyone say anything to me when i wrote that post?

I’d also like to ask why including instruction manuals seems so underrated nowadays. Am i the only one who reads them?

Moby Dick – The Book That Conquered Me

I received an email from Kobo the other day:

 

I thought it was time to share the story of the only book that ever conquered me. It’s not a very long one. Or even that interesting.

I’d always wanted to read Moby Dick (or The Whale) by Herman Melville so back in high school i decided to give it a go. I borrowed it from the library and i started reading it. It was one of the most tedious things i have ever done. I can’t remember how far i got into it, however i know that they had barely set sail and i was already at least a third of the way in (the book is about hunting a whale and the first third of the book isn’t even about that!) and the library informed me that i wasn’t allowed to re-borrow the book anymore. After re-borrowing it two or three times (i can’t remember which), you aren’t allowed to re-borrow a book (obviously because if they didn’t have that rule you could just re-borrow a book forever and never let anyone else have a chance at reading it). You then have a waiting period until you are allowed to re-borrow it. Well, that had never happened to me before! Usually i only re-borrowed a book because i had greedily borrowed too many books for the amount of time i had to read and hadn’t started them yet. But essentially being barred from a book? I felt like a criminal!

I guess the whole experience wounded my pride and i wasn’t game to pick the book up again in case i was once again barred from borrowing it (maybe forever this time?) so i just got on with life, shaking my fist every now and then when i heard the book mentioned.

However since i received for Christmas last year a Kobo Touch eReader, this has opened up an opportunity for me to finally finish what was started. Moby Dick is a classic. Most classics are free eBooks. Even if i only read a chapter a month (i hope to achieve more than that) it will only take 11 years and three months (only). Yes, that is a long time. Who knows what i will be doing then, however i’m only young and will still be young then!

If i did it too quickly, i’d have to come up with a new life goal 😉

Are there any books that have conquered you? Or have you finally conquered a book?

Kobo Touch eReader

For Christmas my Mum and Step-Dad gave me a Kobo Touch eReader. I have never had an eReader before. I must admit that i quite like owning one.

I still really enjoy holding a book in my hands and physically turning the pages. I enjoy the smell and feel of a brand new book; all crisp and fresh. And in the same breath i love the smell and feel of an old book; musty, yellowing and fragile.

I don’t want eBooks to ever replace paper books completely. However i suppose it is inevitable. At the moment i can enjoy the best of both worlds. Now, when holidaying, i don’t have to worry about how heavy my suitcase is because of all the books i have in it (and yes i am very guilty of this – i worry whether I’ve packed enough books because i don’t want to run out of reading material). Also i live in a country area and there is a local library half an hour away however we don’t really go there very often and i feel guilty about driving all that way and back again just to borrow or return books. Now, did you know that a lot of libraries lend eBooks? And that you can do it all from the convenience of your own home? I did not know this until a couple of days ago. HOW EXCITING IS THAT???!!! (As you can tell – i am very excited). I just borrowed The Help by Kathryn Stockett, easy as that. And i don’t need to even worry about when i have to return it because it just expires. I am literally sitting here trying not to jump up and down shouting about how excited i am.

I really like my Kobo, however i was expecting the library to work like iTunes where you have all of your music (or in this case books) in your library and then you can choose to automatically sync it to your device or manually sync it. Meaning that you can have your entire collection or just what you want. I know that eBooks don’t take up much room and there is space for at least 1000 books on my Kobo, i guess I’m just thinking of when i get to the point where I’ve read all the eBooks on my Kobo and I’ve already deleted all the ones that I’m happy to have read but won’t read again. What will i do? If i want to download another book will i have to delete a book i like and will want to read again? Some people never reread a book so they do not have this problem. I am not one of these people. I will regularly reread a book that i love even if i practically know it off by heart. Granted, this won’t be for awhile if it does happen, however i’m just one of those annoying people that looks at the future possibilities and has to have a solution for it now so that if it happens, i am prepared. It’s funny actually, when my husband and i were merely coworkers (in fact he was my manager) it was one of the things about me that really annoyed him. We worked at a restaurant together where he was the chef and i was the waitress and i would come into the kitchen and ask questions like, “So with the special, if someone wants it as a main rather than an entree, is that okay?” and he’d reply, “Does someone want that?” and i’d reply, “No, i just want to know in case someone asks.” Anyway one day after an interchange similar to that, i walked out of the kitchen and i overheard him venting to the kitchen hand how annoying i was when i did that etc. Well! I can tell you. I was extremely indignant and was only ever civil to him after that. Until we obviously became great friends, fell in love and got married. We joke about it now. Anyway, back to my point. I would like the option to manually sync my books onto my Kobo. And i know i could get around it if i wanted to, i just think it would be a good option for them to have. I also find it annoying that i cannot use it when it is charging. And i didn’t realise how much Wi-Fi drains the battery. I have turned it off and i’m testing how long the battery lasts – hopefully for a month like they state it does.

I’m really looking forward to downloading for free a lot of the old classics. There are quite a few of them i’ve been wanting to read for awhile but because they are quite wordy and lengthy, i haven’t wanted to borrow them from the library and feel rushed. Maybe i will even download Moby Dick and conquer the only book that conquered me. Now that is a goal i want to achieve.

Here’s to reading – in whatever form you desire.

“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” – Oscar Wilde

I apologise for my less-than-wonderful photo quality – they were taken on my phone.