I love libraries. I love the smell of them, their silence and seriousness. I love the public-spiritedness of them. And I love their fundamental purpose: to let me have books, for free! And, these days, films and CDs too. I love the recognition that their existence implies that culture and entertainment [...]
Book festivals are a good thing. Pretty much anything that involves books and words and reading is a good thing, in my book, if you’ll pardon the pun. But do you know what’s wrong with book festivals? There aren’t enough books in them.
Take Aye Write, the Glasgow book festival for example. [...]
Andrew Greig described what must have been a terrifying moment when I heard him speak at the Aye Write book festival. When he was fifteen, he sent some of his poems to the venerable Scottish poet, Norman MacCaig. In response, he received a note that read (and in telling this part of the [...]