This may seem a little strange to some readers, but I have religious reasons for not wanting to see real books disappear into the mists of time.

For one day a week, in order to observe my Sabbath, I don't use any kind of electrical item, including my Kindle or Android phone and so having paper books to read is an absolute must, especially during those long summer afternoons, when night doesn't fall until 2230.

More than for just personal reasons though, I don't ever see a point where a Kindle or its future progeny (a Star Trek like datapad maybe) will replace our prayer books, Torah scrolls or the plethora of written work that we've accumulated over the ages.

This is nothing new. In some ultra-orthodox Jewish circles, organisations exist that will take a blood sample and tell you if you're a carrier of some hereditary disease such as Tay Sachs that could produce a child with the illness if you were to have a child with a another carrier. In the case of Tay Sachs, this is really critical as most newborns don't survive beyond the first few weeks and this causes incredible emotional stress for the parents. When a potential match is suggested, a check is made with the organisation to check if you're genetically compatible from a hereditary disease perspective. If you're not compatible, you never meet and therefore avoid and heartache later on. While DNA compatibility isn't necessarily full proof (the company in the article seem to be completely ignoring phenotype - i.e. how your DNA actually expresses itself when you're born, e.g. a DNA test may show you to have the ginger hair gene, but it may be recessive and never show itself), it could help people who subscribe to the service avoid the same issues. There's still a lot to be said for actually meeting the person and seeing a) if you get along with them and b) if there's an attraction.

TomTom has made their software available for Windows Mobile devices for as long as I can remember. I definitely wouldn't be caught without it on my Touch Pro2, it's an absolute godsend. Guess they're ahead of the market in this game, at least in the UK.

Although not strictly speaking a book on mathematics, this is the story of Andrew Wiles trials and tribulations in solving Fermat's Last Theorem and is an incredibly well written account. You can find it on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Fermats-Enigma-Greatest-Mathematical-Problem/dp/0385493622/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234170288&sr=8-3.