Why the e-book gives you e-xtra

By now, most of you who helped to make my new book Constable Colgan's Connectoscope a reality have got a copy. Some of you opted for the e-book/audiobook option only. If that's so, the e-book is now available to download here. The audiobook will be with you soon; it's been recorded and edited and we're just sorting out the technical gubbins to make it available for download. Oh, and the e-book and the audiobook are available to ANYONE who pledged, even if you also got a physical hard copy.

We've tried to make the e-book as accessible as possible by providing it in EPUB, MOBI and PDF formats, so it should be readable on a wide variety of devices. You can also send it directly to the READMILL app on your iPhone or iPad with one click on the Connectoscope site.

We've added something extra to the e-book version too. At the back you'll find a bibliography and a list of hyperlinks to the sources I used to find all of the facts in the book. Because the book is meant to be a light-hearted galumph through the fields of trivia, I don't go into any great detail with each fact. However, I am aware that some of the subject matter might pique your curiosity. So, if a particular subject interests you strangely, I've provided you with the links you need to go and find out more.

The one thing I wish we could have done is include photographs. Sadly, that would have upped the costs considerably and caused a nightmare of assigning rights etc. However, some facts are so much better demonstrated by illustration. For example, in Investigation 16 (page 82), I talk about rainbows and the fact that they should be called rainrings as they are actually circular; how much of it we see depends upon the width of the band of rain and where the sun is at the time. How much nicer it would have been to show you an example:

 

Isn't that amazing? And not a copy of Photoshop in sight (Note: when I posted this image I was unable to tell you who took it. Thanks to a comment left (see below) I now can - it's by Nicole Cambert and was shot from Livingstone Island on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls). In rare instances, you can also get a rainring around the sun (pic: National Geographic).

 

 

Another fact that's so much better demonstrated by a picture is found in Investigation 17 (page 83) where I explain exactly what pink Kryptonite does to Kryptonians such as Superman. It only ever happened once (in Supergirl comic in 2003) but here's a panel from the comic to give you an idea of the hilarity that ensued:

 

 

(Image copyright DC Comics)

 

Heh.