I'm gathering a pile of books to take on this year's cruise. There's already quite a lot of variety - from Terry Pratchett and Bernard Cornwell's latest, through collections of women's writing (800 years of Women's Letters, My Apprenticeship (Beatrice Webb), Betty's Wartime Diary 1939-1945 and others) to Oxford Myths and Legends.

There are others, not listed here, as I get through a book every couple of days or so. Not that there's much opportunity for reading during the day when we're on the move - reading is confined to first thing in the morning with breakfast, and last thing at night before sleep.

One of the reasons why, for me, real books will never be replaced by e-books is that we are never sure that we will be able to hook up to electricity when we stop for the night. 12v power is reserved for water pumps and lighting, not for charging laptops and the like.

My copy of the Scandinavian Tales arrived on Wednesday morning and the French Tales yesterday - they're much smaller than I remember! Slightly smaller than a standard hardback book today, I had mis-remembered them as large volumes.

The illustrations are just as I remembered them. The French Tales opens with Roland blowing the great silver horn.