In Love of Literature, Reading & Words

 IN LOVE OF LITERATURE, READING & WORDS

Here we are. Another year on. And it's August. Any of you that have kept track of me will remember last August and my Fringe Festival escapades. 

This year is a little different. Graduation done, my flat packed up in anticipation of my absconding to Durham, I started a new role with the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Described (in genuine feedback) as 'the Heart of the August Festival', it's been quite the whirligig experience. 

Right now, of course, it's crazy. People from all over the world populate Charlotte Square. Writers great and small have come to share their work and their thoughts. Books are shipped into the square in their hundreds, ready for eager hands and hungry eyes. It puts the quiet months of ticket sales and seller smiles squarely in the past participle. 

Hoping to make this post short and sweet, I simply wanted to introduce my little project of the next couple days: to edit and post reviews of the books I've been reading in my time here. Some I'll recommend, some I'll flag with a warning, some I might have to critique. But the point behind these reviews is simple: I've loved having the time to read again. Whilst I've avoided the 'heavy duty' biographies and the politics thus far, I've finally had the hours here and there to spend reading fiction not on a school list. 

In other Ed Book Fest news: 

1. Superheroes are awesome. The Stripped programme is quite brilliant and I urge everyone to attend at least one event on it - even if you know nothing about comics, graphic novels or superheroes. Also... I have invented a new crazy hero and will write a book about her. Or him. Gender not specific. 
2. THERE ARE NEW MYSTERIOUS BOOK SCULPTURES. Kudos to all who guessed as much from the allusionary title.
3. The First Book Award shortlist is brilliant and I've yet to read one I haven't enjoyed on some level. More to come on that front.
4.  The other day I had to run with a Build-A-Bear Bag all the way to Waverley Stations because one of the authors forgot it (and his daughter would have been sad).
5. The box office has written a song about the Laminator. 
6. We have all gone insane.

 

RIGHT! NOW ON TO THE REVIEWS!ON Y VA! 

Je serai poète et toi poésie, 
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