Currently we have reached 360 pounds of the 20,000 Pound goal.
As a ships engineer and then as a ships casualty investigator, I have spent my working life (still a few years to go), attacking problems head-on: finding cause, isolating it and fixing it, quickly and under immense pressure to do so (drifting in rough seas is no fun). This current project has therefore been an exercise in patience, waiting for a sufficient amount to begin has been like watching a kettle boil - a very large one with the plug out. But I realise that I am expecting too much and that in situations like this I have to walk away for a while: as with the kettle, walk away and it soon boils. In fact, every time I turn my head a new surge starts which is fantastic.
I hope the dream will occur. Perhaps if we reach 1000 pounds, an initial start can be made on the first book, No28 Chinese Allusions, which we have already run out of print copies of. This could be a test run, a working exercise to see how the digitisation will go. And upon completion, to those who are interested, I can send a complimentary copy - all comments on its layout and design are then very welcome and appreciated as a precursor to the other 32 volumes.
I am keen to go ahead with this large project. I know, as most will, that if Bill's books are not turned into eBooks that his enormous achievement and legacy will slowly but surely vanish. So, it is with a great many thanks to those who have donated already, it is a small but bright light at the end of a long tunnel.
Fingers crossed.