Google Books crashes on loading - workaround? (HTC Desire Z 2.3)

Google Books Android crashes on loading. Is there a workaround to stop this, while I wait for the developers to fix? > The application Books (process com.google.android.apps.books) has > stopped unexpectedly. Please try again. This happens every time (trying again won't help). Restart of the phone and uninstall re-install of the app doesn't help either. Apparently, there is a known issue whereby it will crash if it has no books (wouldn't that be most people to begin with!?) But their remedy instructions are vague - just open a free ebook - but from what? A browser? Will this interact with Google Books to solve the problem? I visited the book store and downloaded an ebook but this just went to the Downloads folder so not sure how this can help. I also tried copying an ebook from the Download folder to data\com.google.android.apps.books\files and running the Google Books app but this doesn't work - i.e. the crash still happens.