Scottish Book Trust Archives

Lately I’ve become an absolute podcast junkie – so I decided to share 5 of my favourite podcasts.

What are your favourite podcasts, bookish or otherwise? Where else do you like to read or hear about books? Click on the video or read on for my picks…

SBT

1. Book Talk by Scottish Book Trust
A podcast from the Scottish Book Trust. Combines book discussion episodes with interviews with authors and local literary news. I love the vast array of readers that they bring in, from SBT staff to critics and journalists to authors to teachers. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve appeared on this one a couple of times, discussing A Visit from the Goon Squad and The Hundred Year-Old Man…

Click through for their Website – Twitter – subscribe on iTunes.

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2. Book Riot with Jeff O’Neal & Rebecca Schinsky
A weekly round-up of bookish news, along with book recommendations and chat about the reading life. I discovered this podcast via Rincey and gave it an initial listen on a bus ride to Inverness. I then pretty much shotgunned the rest and have been listening weekly ever since. This one comes in at about 1 hour long, and is usually published at weekends, making it perfect for a Sunday laze on the couch with a cup of tea and an iPad game. (Well, that’s how I enjoy it.)

Visit Book Riot – Twitter – subscribe on iTunes.

bookrageous

3. Bookrageous with Josh, Jenn & Rebecca
They dub themselves “serious about books, but not exactly serious” – which is a pretty great summation. The Bookrageous podcast is a regular round-table of books and reading, including the occasional book group discussion. I really enjoy their boundless enthusiasm, and both love and hate the massive TBR that each listening session this podcast leaves behind.

Find them on Twitter – Tumblr – subscribe on iTunes.

literary-disco

4. Literary Disco with Rider Strong, Julia Pistell, & Todd Goldberg
After listening to Book Riot and Bookrageous back-to-back you might want to hear someone give a book a right good slagging. Literary Disco is fortnightly book discussion podcast from 3 very intelligent and rambunctious readers. Their discussions have a more academic quality than the above, which sets it apart from as a little more serious, but still very fun, look into books.

Visit Literary Disco’s website – Twitter – subscribe on iTunes.

5. Books on the Nightstand
Run by 2 Random House sales reps as a personal project, this podcast is a weekly discussion of books and related topics, with occasional author interviews. The basic format is a discussion (usually a listener question or topical issue) followed by 2 book recommendations, and an audiobook of the week. This one is a neat 30 minutes long, and is published every Tuesday, so I love listening to this while walking on an errand or while making dinner.

Find the Books on the Nightstand website – Goodreads group – subscribe on iTunes.

Yesterday marked the launch of one of my favourite events on the cultural calendar: Book Week Scotland 2013.

Now in its second year, Book Week Scotland is, as the name suggests, a week-long national celebration of books and reading from 25 November to 1 December 2013.

Last year I blogged on behalf of the event’s organisers, Scottish Book Trust, and got a flavour of all of the events that took place across the country. You can read the blog archive on their website.

This year, Book Week Scotland will host over 400 book-related events in 349 different locations. You can see the full programme over here – but first, I want to give you some of my picks.

Book Week Scotland Pop Up ShopEveryone loves a pop-up, right? One of my favourite things about the local book festivals like Aye Write and Edinburgh Book Fest are the book shops featuring work by the authors who are taking part. This year, the pop-up shop at the Mitchell library will be showcasing and selling the best of books from Scottish Publishers. Looks like someone’s book buying ban will be out the window a week or two early…
Reading Hour
It’s back! This was one of my favourite elements of last year’s event. It’s an opportunity to do exactly as it says – allocate 1 hour in the week to sit down and have a read. This year it’s on Friday 29 November at 11am, and I’m planning to take part at the newly re-opened Glasgow Women’s Library with tea, cake, and some fellow readers.
Big Book Bash
In addition to the Reading Hour, this year BWS is inviting participants to host their own Big Book Bash! This is a celebration of reading of any kind, in any shape or form, at any time or place during Book Week Scotland 2013, giving everyone a chance to express what makes reading fun for them. I, for one, have a few ideas already…
Allllll of the eventsLook, there are too many to pick, but some amazing local events have already jumped out at me including the Book Brunch (well, it’s far away, but sounds brilliant), Words Per Minute, and Drama Queens: Play Reading for Pleasure. Take a look at the full programme for yourself.
A free book!
Finally, Book Week Scotland has created a special book for the event. Last year it was My Favourite PLace, a collection of stories from Scottish people about their favourite place in the world. This year it’s Treasures, a short story and poem collection written by the people of Scotland, which will be distributed across the country – so keep an eye out for it at Book Week events.

What are you looking forward to at Book Week Scotland?