It's too late in the day to engage the brain for anything serious, so let's just have a wee blether instead. Firstly, I'm delighted with the great response to The Bookshop - so many people have read it, enjoyed it and contributed to the discussion, and I know others who prefer not to make public their thoughts on the book have read it, too, and I hope gained from all the comments. I wish every book the CBG does turned out to be as popular and successful a choice!
Our February book is, of course, Winifred Holtby's South Riding and I was amused, though not at all surprised, to see that the Virago Book Club are reading it, too; I'd love to think they got the idea here but I'm sure that's not so. If you sign up on their site, you'll be able to join in the discussion there, too.
I should think lots of you will have got a Kindle or similar device since I wrote about mine, so how are you all getting on with them? What sort of books are you buying (or getting free)? I ask that because in an article in today's paper, Scott Pack makes the interesting point that many Kindle owners are fans of so-called "disposable fiction" - they read lots of crime or romance, say, and tend to send their books to the charity shop once they've read them, so the e-book format is perfect for them (cheap and no storage constraints); Pack contrasts that with those who buy more hardback fiction for keeping purposes.
I said this was a blether of a post and in that vein, if you're on Twitter, you may be interested to follow the excellent publication Slightly Foxed tweeting as @Foxed Quarterly, while The London Library is doing a grand job of raising its profile in various ways including as @TheLondonLib. For a brief tour of the largest independent lending library in the world conducted by its president Sir Tom Stoppard, click here (is that some modern spelling of 'playwright' the Sky Arts Book Show page are going in for?!).
