The Linux Command Line by William E. Shotts.

This book is not a novel but a computer manual. It is available as a free 2,009 KB PDF download from the Linux Command website and was published in 2009. This book shows how Linux from the command line actually works behind the scenes. It gives a full explanation of how Linux works and the history of computer operating from the birth of Unix. It explores the reasoning behind Unix and you begin to understand exactly how computers work with this great tale of logic. William writes a lovely background and history of computer operating techniques, theory and best practice. He illustrates the power, efficency and beauty of working from the command line. This book entertains as you discover the bash shell. The text works very well as a book and it gave me the same reading pleasure as I get from a regular novel.

This book is not dull but it is lively and thought provoking. At the end of this book you wonder if you would ever miss a graphical user interface now that William has shown you the other way, which is Linux at the command line. You can always refer back to this book and use it as a reference. It was such an enjoyable read that I will vote it the maximum score of 5 stars on Goodreads . The Linux Command Line is a good adventure that makes you wonder about all the bloat with Microsoft Windows.

Love All the People - Bill Hicks .

Bill Hicks was born on 16/12/61 but sadly died at the age of 32 on 26/2/94. He was a very loved and respected comedian, especially among other comedians. This book has been made up by John Lahr in 2004 and is a collection of Bill's comedy routines, letters and lyrics.

This book is absolute rubbish and I will vote it the minimum of one star on Goodreads . The content does not work as a book and it is the worst book I have ever read. Love All the People never moves on because it is so shallow in content. Bill's stand up routines are repeated time and time again as an account of each venue is replayed. His routines revolve around the war on drugs, how musicians have used drugs to become creative, magic mushrooms, smoking, the Kennedy asassination, the Waco seige, celebrity endorsements,  bland musicians, abortion, easter bunnies and creationism. These routines are repeated time and time again. The reader knows what is coming next in Bill's comedy routine because they have read it earlier in this dreadful book. This book could have been a quarter of it's size and the reader would have lost nothing, rather than wasting their time reading more of the same as Bill retells his comedy routines. These jokes might have been amusing the first time you read them but with constant repettition they become tiresome.

To give a flavour of Bill's humour, here are a few snips...

That’s what I hate about the war on drugs, I’ll be honest with you, it’s what I can’t stand is all day long when we see those commercials:

‘Here’s your brain, here’s your brain on drugs’,

‘Just say no’,

‘Why do you think they call it dope?’

And then the next commercial is:

‘This Bud’s for you.’

Come on everybody, let’s be hypocritical bastards. It’s OK to drink your drug. (laughs) We meant those other drugs. Those untaxed drugs. Those are the ones that are bad for ya. Nicotine, alcohol . . . good drugs. Coincidentally, taxed drugs. Oh, how does this fucking work?

...With the presidential election currently taking place here, it has become more and more obvious that there is one political party in America, and that is – THE BUSINESS PARTY. And, in order to placate the masses with the illusion of democracy, they hold a purely ceremonial election every four years while their propaganda arm – the corporate-owned mainstream media – obediently and even gleefully plays it to the hilt, as though there was actually a choice and you, the American people, were the ones getting to make that choice.

...‘Whaddya say we stay inside tonight, baby? Let’s let the pizza delivery guy deal with that shit out there. Hello? Pizza delivery, could you send another car over please. I know that’s your third one, that last guy almost made it. I can almost reach the pizza box with the broom handle. How come those pitbulls are eating your driver but they’re not touching that fucking pizza? What do they know that we don’t know, hellooo?’

...And this fascination with fucking chips – french fries. You call ’em chips; they’re french fries. I love fries, don’t get me wrong. If you leave here tonight going, ‘Bill doesn’t like fries’ . . . you’ll be wrong. But every single fucking time you eat? Come on! You’re having too many fries! You’re over your spud quota. Everything has these. I saw hookers on London streets going, ‘Head and chips!’ You may think you’ve gotten good head before, but unless you’ve had it with a big, hot, piping plate of fries in front of you .

...OK, here we go. It’s about my life as I did growing up in a happy, healthy, loving family: ‘Good evening everybody. Momma never beat me and Daddy never fucked me. Good night!’ (in deep voice) ‘T-shirts are on sale in the lobby.’ In Stokey West Virginia, people come up, real excited: ‘That was a great show. Liked it a lot. Little long . . . but ah . . . my attention span wavered towards the end. One thing though: that part about your dad never fucking you – that’s a joke, right?’ Course it is.

Is that a bus? I’m outa here.

The screen breaks.

I have had my Amazon Kindle since February 2011 and have been very pleased with it. I think it is a great device with a wonderful design.

However, when I turned it on the other day the screen had black lines across it. I wondered what had gone wrong as it looked like the screen saver image had not been cleared from the display. I tried to get rid of these lines by doing obvious things like flicking pages, going to the home screen, opening other books, turning the Kindle off and on plus even trying a reset procedure. All to no avail as the black lines across the screen remain.

A quick search on the internet shows that I am not the only person to have a faulty Amazon Kindle screen. This fault is rather common as the device gets older. I have had my Kindle for 20 months and have read a total of 30 books on it, in that time. I wondered what to do and because this appears to be a common failing with the e-ink display on the Kindle, I decided not to buy a replacement Kindle. Any books you purchase from Amazon are archived on their servers and you can re-download them at no charge to another device.

Fortuneately I have a Samsung Galaxy Tablet, so I downloaded all my Amazon Kindle ebooks to it the other night. I like the idea of a Kindle but the failing of the e-ink screen has put me off the device and I shall never buy another one. I like ebooks and prefer them to paperbacks, for the obvious reasons. I love being able to carry my library around on my tablet computer and the Kindle Android app is a very good program. The Kindle app is a good solution to this problem and I will stick with it on my tablet.

I am still a fan of Kindle ebooks and will continue to buy more in the future as it is my drug of choice.