Site Build Day 14

The site is right on track, looking grand and green as it nears its completion. Only a few more days until it opens!


And now for something mysterious...


Mind you, the mystery can be solved with this:

Are Friends Electric?

On Sunday 15th August, I'll be chairing an event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. I'm Peggy from the Scottish Poetry Library; we assisted Don Paterson in programming the poetry strand, and I blogged book festival events from this here very blog last year. The event is called Are Friends Electric? and the blurb runs thus:

Biologists have claimed we can only deal with a certain number of close friendships. Facebook’s 400 million active users average 130 friends each. Twitter averages 50 million tweets a day. With this much information and this many people, are we emotionally and personally connected, or just sharing information? Join Jason Bradbury, Gadget Show host and one of the world’s most influential Twitterati, and Mariann Hardey, social media researcher and blogger extraordinaire, for interactive chat.

Supported by ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum, in association with The Skinny, this event is an exciting chance to discuss and debate the impact of social media. Here at the SPL, in the last few years, we have whole heartedly embraced the social media developments available to us, so perhaps we are biased about the positive results it can have; we’re able to bring people and poetry together on a global scale, and that has to be a good thing! We're therefore delighted that the book festival has joined Twitter (@edbookfest), so we can keep up with the latest news, enter competitions for books and tickets and chat to fellow book lovers about book festival events!

But what do you think. Are friends electric? Do you feel that you have more than one online persona? Can you really be friends with someone you’ve only met online? We’d love to have your feedback before the event, electric friends!

Join in on Twitter: please make sure you speak to us by using the hashtag #Electricfriends. Or comment below...

Site Build Day 13

And now for something mysterious...

Yes, from pews to potential modern art installations -- Charlotte Square gardens has it all.

Site Build Day 12

The walkways have appeared and are looking very aesthetically pleasing as they wind their way through the trees. They're also incredibly useful for providing a handy circuit around Charlotte Square gardens: all the better for taking photographs in geographical order. Gone are the days when I was taking site photos from the bushes (which never happened anyway).


The Highland Park Spiegeltent is also looking particularly impressive as it heads towards completion. As presented by our masterful Site Manager Robin!

Free events at this year's festival

We've always had a range of free events at the Book Festival, but this year we've given you even more to choose from. Programme Manager Roland talks us through your myriad penny free possibilities:

And here's those daily options in writing: Ten At Ten, a short ten minute reading at 10am in our Writer's Retreat; StoryShop, a chance to hear some new, local writers reading at 4pm in our bookshop; Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers where we pay tribute to persecuted writers from around the world; Unbound, a mini festival within a festival where we invite writers to try out new approaches to writing; and last, but not least, our specially commissioned short stories on the theme of Elsewhere.

Book Competition Answer

Two weeks ago, we asked Book Festival ebulletin readers how many books we keep here on the office shelves...


The above is just a slice of our mighty collection! We received many guesses, from 35 to 35,000: and the real number is 1,482. From Alberto Manguel's unique All Men Are Liars to Nora Chassler's riveting Miss Thing, we in the Charlotte Square offices are very lucky to have this treasure trove of books within reach (or, at least, within reach of the taller members of staff we call upon for the top shelves!).

Congratulations to our competition winner, who has won Garth Nix's Lord Sunday and John Harris's Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, with two tickets to each of these brilliant events.

Sign up to the Edinburgh International Book Festival ebulletin for regular email updates about Book Festival activities, offers, recommendations for events and books, literary news, and competitions like the above.

Site Build Day 9

Next week is the last week of the site build, and Charlotte Square gardens is looking more and more familiar to Book Festival regulars...