And now a word about Scotland...

My husband is from Scotland and I love it there.  I also love how much the Scots love books and reading.  My father in law reads about 5 newspapers a day and their libraries are busy and not because homeless people are living in them, either.  My mother in law is a huge murder-mystery fan and my brother-in-law reads a book a day practically.  My husband?  Well, is a political/history of whiskey/cultural criticism of the health care system for 10 minutes before bed type of guy. At least he's reading! 

Here is a smashing photo of my handsome brother in law reading And Then Things Fall Apart on the glistening greens of St. Andrews.  Thanks to him and my other family there, my sales numbers show a spike in Scotland.  

This a short list of my favorite Scottish writers:

J.K. Rowling

Iain Banks

Irvine Welsh

Ali Smith

James Kelman

Robert Louis Stevenson

Ian Rankin

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Alasdair Grey

A.L. Kennedy

Muriel Spark

Alan Warner (The Sopranos and Morvern Callar)

But what I'm getting at here is that the Scots seem to still be in a passionate love affair with books.  Events as the Edinburgh Book Festival SELL OUT.  There's like, people scalping tickets to see some woman in glasses talk about her BOOK for half an hour. And then there was some artist leaving mysterious book sculptures in libraries, little gifts that said "I love you, books," all over Edinburgh.

I'm still waiting for this kind of thing at my local library, which I am slowly, despite the lack of mysterious book sculptures, falling in love with all over again.