Monday memorandum at the book festival

Big wave to you all after another busy weekend enjoying all the bustle of Edinburgh in August.  As you will have seen here I am a big fan of the Fringe festival that takes over the city every summer. But I have not sampled the other festivals that take place at the same time and thought I should rectify this omission. 

So this year I went to the book festival for the first time - it is so different from the Fringe which is big and noisy and takes over every conceivable performance space.  The book festival is contained within one big grassy square in town - it is flat, has plenty of seats - including in the queue, the atmosphere is quietly excited.  There is even a cafe inside the big bookshop that is erected on site

I arrived in plenty of time for the talk so that I could have a nosey around and enjoy a coffee and read a bit.  I was rather hesitant in pulling out my kindle when so many people were reading actual paper books but I spotted a couple reading theirs so I sat near them and then another lady came over and sat nearby and took out hers.

I thoroughly enjoyed the talk and reading from Ken McLeod whose scifi books I thoroughly enjoy too.  He explained how he came up with the key concepts in his latest trilogy and read extracts from the 1st book and, as a special treat, a piece from the 3rd which he is currently writing.  I have a ticket for another local author who I enjoy reading - Chris Brookmyre - for next weekend.  I will definitely be adding the book festival to my August programme in the future.

And my tasting adventures continue.  Outside one of the popular venues we had spotted a stall offering 'adult ice-cream' so had to investigate.  Each flavour contains alcohol

I chose Oreos over Dublin and it was delicious.

Wishing you all a good week.