Borkya, JLMB, C.P., E the R,(excuse abbreviations), thanks for the information: a kindle is definitely on my shopping list now.
E. the R. Is the "Decline and Fall" available on Kindle? I've only read the whole book once (the Everymans Library edition),and that was more years ago than I care to remember; never since have I had enough time to re-read it but, if next summer presents me with as much leisure time as this one has, the stately prose of Gibbon's magnum opus would do much to dispel the boredom.
The last of this summer's reading list, also a return to something I've read before, is Edvard Radzinsky's biography of Stalin. I don't know if I'm unique in having my attitude to reading material affected by the weather, but this second perusal (the first time was 10 years ago) coincided with the wettest, darkest, gloomiest September that I can remember, and the grim story of one of history's darkest episodes is deepening my sense of depression. I should finish it this weekend, after which, if the weather doesn't improve, I shall have to go through my stock of Terry Pratchett and Tom Sharpe in order to recover my joi de vivre.