Another overloaded day at work - far too much to do for the new month’s campaign and not enough booksellers. For this I got out of bed at 6.30 am on a wet and windy morning?



On the plus side however, Matthew came past (hiding from his exams? Er, I mean studying outside?) and we are making a fair bit of headway on the important matter of what cartoon alter-ego each member of staff has. I was hoping for Bugs Bunny (childhood role model) but fear secretly I have more in common with Sylvester the Cat (suffering succatash!). So far we have a Pink Panther, Chucky from Rug Rats, Penelope Pitstop, the Ant Hill Mob, a Power puff Girl, Elmer Food, Wile E. Coyote, Marvin the Martian and Pepe le Peu. Surrounded by the finest of world literature and the collected sum of all human knowledge, we discuss important matters, we booksellers.



We also had a visit from Iain Banks who is making a brave attempt to read all of the SF prize shortlist entries I had on display. I asked if he is working on a new SF novel and it transpires Iain is working on something even more important - a book on whisky. Normally he isn’t overly keen on research but he seems to be enjoying his research into uisge betha. Heading off to the Western Isles (home of the finest single malts in the history of humanity) he enlisted the willing aid of fellow local scribe Ken MacLeod as a native guide. We can only hope Iain is successful in persuading the publishers the book should be launched here in Edinburgh and not London - and that they remember to invite the local bookselling fraternity, naturally.