What can you say about a rock in 62 words?

That was the challenge set by the 26 Treasures Scotland project, a collaboration between the National Museum of Scotland and 26, a not-for-profit group that champions the cause of better writing in all areas of life. The creative response was to an object included in a treasure trail (of 26 objects)

that span Scotland’s story, from its geological roots to its technological future, taking in iconic objects and hidden gems along the way.

The plan is that visitors will use the 26 Treasures as a guide to wind their way around and through the museum galleries. Beside each object and interpretation panel a QR code plays an audio clip of the writer reading their creation piece. My object was the Lewisian Gneiss, the oldest treasure in the collections of NMS, Edinburgh.

On Saturday we went ‘live’ with performances and readings. Listening to each writer introduce their creative pieces and say a bit about their creative process brought another dimension to the project. It was like looking at a painting for the thirtieth time and finding something new. Some of the creative pieces had interesting back-stories, some of the writers made emotional connections to their objects – sometimes, both. It wasn’t so much a case of bringing history alive, but rendering Scottish history anew – looking at it through a fresh angle of perspective and revealing ideas and information long known yet little discussed.

So. Thank you Sara Sheridan, for introducing me to 26 and, with Jamie Jauncey, for sorting out the Scottish strand; thanks also to the NMS staff who worked hard to pull it all together, especially to Claire Allan for ensuring a smooth and well-planned day.

• You’ll find photos on BookRambler Flickr-stream  and the NMS Flickrstream

• You can read the blogposts and listen to readings on the 26 Treasures section of the main NMS website.

What has this to do with books, dear Bookrambler, I hear you say…

Breaking News! An exciting development is the proposal to publish all the creation pieces from 26 Treasures 2011 as a collection with Unbound. John Simmons introduces the proposal and the project on the  Unbound website where you’ll also find details about how to vote and lend your support.

books

Peter Osnos’s recent article in The Atlantic (link below) on books and bookselling flags up the positive results of digital and looks at the publishing world from a reader’s perspective – which makes a refreshing change from all the messages of doom and gloom and ‘death of the book’ that circulate on a daily basis.

Why It’s a Great Time to Be a Reader – The Atlantic.

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Thursday was the launch for this year’s Kelpies Prize-winning book: How to Make a Golem (and Terrify People), by Alette J. Willis (Floris Books)- you might remember, I met Alette at Linlithgow Book Festival.

Imaginatively hosted by Floris Books, the launch was quirky, informal and good-humoured. Importantly,  it was really well-attended.

Well, who could resist the Golem-themed food & drink?

How to Make a Golem (and Terrify People) is Edinburgh-based Alette’s first children’s book. In her introduction, Alette talked about how she’s been writing for ten years working with a critique group online and via skype, but that it was working to the deadline of the Kelpies Prize – from September to February, that gave her the impetus to complete the typescript in just five months.

The story ‘came to her’, she said, while she was sitting with her dog under her favourite tree on Corstorphine hill’ – where some of the action takes place.

How to Make a Golem (and Terrify People) fuses Scottish legend and European folklore and taps into Alette’s academic research on story, identity and ethics as well as her work as a volunteer Talking Trees Storyteller at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Chani McBain of Floris Books said that Golem

won the judges’ hearts with its quirky storyline, engaging voice, sparkling sense of humour — and giant mud monster!

I was waiting in teen-taxi last night and it was too dark to read so I flicked through the radio stations looking for a distraction, and stumbled across James Daunt spouting forth about bookshops and the physical book. I found myself agreeing with most of what he said.  I started scribbling down words and phrases and getting goosebumps when I realised the truth of what he had to say and how this might connect with my own thoughts about bookshops, libraries, book festivals and reading.

Daunt talked about how chain bookselling had lost its way, been driven by the cheque book and had crushed individuality for the sake of profit. In the long run, he said, this is what had actually driven their customers away. He thought it was time to  restore individuality and engage with local communities. While I didn’t agree with his thoughts on children’s reading, I found points of commonality in what he said: about how some niche bookshops can be intimidating and how supermarkets as bookshops provided a good introduction to books for those people who might never otherwise enter a bookshop.

There’s no denying the appeal of digital, but there’s no human connection involved in one-click book-buying. Because there’s also no denying that people like talking about books, sharing books and meeting authors. Book Festivals and author events are hugely popular for more than just literary bookish folk. So I wondered, what if there was a way to combine selling and reading? What if you could open a space within supermarkets and bookshops and libraries (which are now so much more than simply a place for books) as reading rooms? A space that was open to all to enjoy a book and pass on good reads, somewhere to share the pleasure of reading? And by all I mean EVERYONE, even those who enjoy celebrity hardbacks and trashy novels and for whom kindle means literally to start a fire.

Combine Daunt’s talk with the appalling unemployment statistics and it’s worth exploring how bookshops, libraries and supermarkets can combine somehow to restore a sense of community. Perhaps they could provide commercially-sponsored places where people can test and try books, buy books, read and share stories and even, perhaps, create their own stories.

By this I don’t mean a return to eighteenth-century subscription libraries or circulating libraries where access to books was according to class, wealth and gender, but something more accessible, which will benefit booksellers and readers and also their communities.

I haven’t worked out how this can be done or who might do it or fund it and I know I’m just thinking aloud and probably annoying half the really good, community-based independent bookshops who do cater to all their readers. But I’m sure even they would admit they’d enjoy a return to a time when bookshops were busier and trade was stronger.

Anyway, enough ‘thinking’ – have a listen to JD.

I’ve put  link to the podcast below and in case this doesn’t work I’ve added a link to the BBC4 Four Thought website where you can scroll down and find the James Daunt Podcast.

Intro – “Recorded in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.”

James Daunt issues a ringing defence of printed books, and argues that libraries and local bookshops – the ‘purveyors of the written word’ – are vital social and cultural spaces. Brought in to turn around the Waterstone’s chain of bookshops, he argues that book chains should continue to play a vital role in introducing readers to books, but will only succeed if they re-connect with their communities.

James Daunt Podcast on Bookshops

BBC Radio 4 – Four Thought Website - scroll down to ‘James Daunt’ and play.

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PS – I’m sorry about these unruly ads – they’re random and from wordpress not from me

But I was early and dropped into Linlithgow for a plate of soup and ended up staying for the day. So Lennoxlove – sorry – I’ll see you next year.

As book festivals go, Linlithgow is different. It’s not heavily sponsored by big corporations or banks but by local companies and the local council. Run by volunteers, it’s intimate and friendly, open and unstuffy.

The Scotsman profiled the festival ‘curator’, Roy Dalgleish, before the events kicked off on Friday evening. They relate how and why Roy,  a microbiologist, came to inaugurate the book festival. It’s a touching, inspiring story. And one that flies in the face of ”experts’ who’ll tell you that you need a degree in event management and literature to run a book festival. Do read it.  Anyone who’s been to an author event will empathise completely with his description of listening to Doris Lessing at the Edinburgh Book Festival – the place that sparked the idea to bring the experience to his home town.

Originally, I’d planned to bypass Lithgae and come back for the final event – after all, the first two events were for children.

However, best laid plans ‘gang aft agley’… and storytelling is timeless and ageless … and Jill Pattle had set out a tempting selection from The Linlithgow Bookshop and Little Owls Bookshop.

I missed Allan Burnett’s “wickedly entertaining” event – but did catch him signing books in his costumery >>

Lari Don gave an enthusiastic, energetic talk about her newest book, Storm Singing and Other Tangled Tasks. It’s the third in a series of Scottish-set fantasy books about the adventures of Helen, Rona the selkie, and other magical creatures and fabled beasts. An accomplished storyteller, Lari’s talk covered a lot of information about how she wrote, where she found her ideas, the different books she writes and how her fictional stories occupy a space between myth and fable. The audience asked oodles of questions, and she signed lots of books.

Of course, one of the pleasures of book festival-going is that you never know who you might bump into.  I discovered that I was sitting next to Alette Willis, author of How to Make a Golem and Terrify People (Floris Books), and winner of the 2011 Kelpies Prize.

But the main event I was here for and that surpassed all my expectations, was with storyteller  Jess Smith and ‘national treasure’ Sheila Stewart. Well, the hour stretched to an extra half hour of highly entertaining but also powerful balladry mixed in with cheeky anecdotes of the tinker life and memories of the Stewarts of Blair.

So I’d missed the big event at the big house in East Lothian, and I’d missed the ‘big’ authors on Saturday’s programme [Janice Galloway, Tam Dalyell, Christopher Brookmyre, James Robertson AND Kelvin Sewell & Stephen Janis]… but I didn’t feel I’d missed out.  I’ve never been to a book festival quite like Lithgae.