Kobo

Last Friday my trusty Kindle Keyboard died :(.  After talking to Amazon Customer Services, they offered me a Kindle Touch for £47.99, which is a model that is no longer on sale.  I initially accepted this, but later changed my mind and went to buy a Kobo Glo.  Its £10 cheaper than the Kindle Paperwhite (£99.99) and came with a free case and £5.99 gift voucher from WH Smiths.  I also read reviews which said the light on the Kobo was better than the Paperwhite.  The Kobo also reads the open ePub format, which the Kindle does not.  With Calibre this isn't a huge problem to fix, but idealistically it feels better.  The Kobo store isn't as cheap as Amazon, but considering you can buy your ebooks from anywhere, I feel like that's not a huge issue.

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

20

I haven't actually read this before, or indeed any Vonnegut, which I suppose might be surprising given how much of a classic SF author he is.  I also didn't know how bad the bombing of Dresden was before I read this, so the book was quite eye-opening.  The time-travel elements were a bit strange, but I do appreciate how it allowed us to see the future memories (of lack of) of Dresden.

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

19

Excellent book, and gets very sad towards the end.  Post apocalyptic story about a Man and a Boy trying to survive, but the book is really about the relationship between these two main characters.  I'd recommend this to anyone, its pretty short and an easy read, yet memorable and moving.

Mindstar Rising - Peter F. Hamilton

18

If I remember one thing about this book it will be the endless descriptions of tits and arses.  Just about every female character but one gets literarily undressed for all to read about.  The story is a pretty standard thriller with some sci-fi elements included, but its relatively well written.  Characterisation is done pretty well, although the main character is a bit good-at-everything.

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

17

A weird writing style made this book slightly awkward to read, and the story has definitely aged badly since its release.  Some nice ideas, and I liked the 2 main characters, but an outdated story.