October 23rd 2008

Todays guests were Barbara Simpson & Malcolm Martland.

We discussed, again, The Reader by Sony, what we thought of the idea of reading from a handheld, device with a 6" screen as opposed to a book. Malcolm thought it cost too much to purchase (around £200), said you could buy a lot of books for that, especially from the charity shop. Malcolm also likes to have more than one book on the go and so has different books in different rooms in the house, he would definately have a problem doing this with The Reader. Also, again the cost of the books they vary from around £5 to £16. Again, you can't lend them to your friends to read afterwards. One good point would be not getting nagged at night from your partner, when reading in bed because the light is keeping them awake and the rustle of the pages.
We also talked about the literary festivals up and down the country being held in October. The Times cheltenham Festival, the Guildford Festival. In the late forties a group of friends gathered in Gloucestershire with the aim of founding a literature festival, in 1949 the worlds first literature festival began. Fast forward 58yrs and hundreds of events take place over ten days each October attracting thousands of people. There are award winning writers, world renowned thinkers and international star names, actors and comedians.
So, what about starting a Scilly literary week? You could rub shoulders with local writers, and maybe get some of the personalities who have been over recently to appear (Martin Clunes for instance).