6th January 2022
Rebecca Richard discusses whether authors have a responsibility to grip you from the beginning. I’m the worst for having multiple books on the go at once. One day I’m in the mood for a crime fiction thriller, the gorier the better. Other days I jump at my own shadow whilst home alone and must opt ...
28th December 2021
Patrick Gaffey offers a method to make reading more books your New Year’s resolution. As 2021 draws to a close, many of us will be counting off our last winter reads, and planning which books to explore next year. Users of websites such as Goodreads and StoryGraph often set annual reading challenges, establishing a minimum ...
18th December 2021
Books Editor Rachel Campbell describes her attempt to make reading a shared hobby in her relationship. To say my boyfriend isn’t a reader would be an understatement. Having studied accounting at uni, he left books at Higher English and never looked back. As I begin my fourth year of studying English Literature, reading has become ...
3rd October 2021
Monica Brotherton describes how reading novels throughout her life has helped her come to terms with silenced grief. My dad died when I was six years old. Even saying that sentence is still a little bit difficult, and I don’t think it will ever roll off the tongue. There’s an awful lot of uncomfortable emotions ...
1st May 2021
Almost 30 years after Trainspotting’s publication, Culture Editor Rosie Shackles examines why the cult classic is just as relevant today. Content warning: discussion of drug use and addiction “Choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing junk food intae yir mooth” hit a little too close to home when reading cult ...
7th April 2021
Five book titles that promise to brighten your day. Suffering from the lockdown blues? Well, you’ve come to the right place! With the road out of lockdown still so uncertain, many of us are feeling a little tense these days. Sometimes you just want to escape the real world, go to a place where the ...
11th January 2021
Mahee Mustafa recounts what Ancient Greece can teach us about freedom. The most valuable thing one can glean from a work of literature is insight into one’s own psyche. Although command of language, deft characterisation, and excavation of universal themes are all important, a book is ultimately worth nothing if it does not reveal a ...
27th November 2020
Ha Neul Lee explores whether reading is still relevant in the age of the internet. In an era where knowledge is just a Google search away, remembering information is getting less and less important. There is, apparently, just no incentive to read. People can watch film or TV adaptations of fictional novels. Information from non-fiction ...
16th November 2020
The importance of literary affordability v supporting your favourite authors. Emily Menger-Davies: Charity shops aren’t killing the publishing industry themselves… but they aren’t helping With Waterstones and Oxfam Books sitting opposite each other on Byres Road, it can be interesting to wonder whether their relationship is one of sibling-like affection or friendly rivalry. Is the ...
14th November 2020
The breakthrough lockdown novel in which we are all protagonists. Since the beginning of March, advice that actually helps us navigate this changed normality has been a rarity. Clarity has become a unicorn concept seen once in a blue moon. As a second lockdown looms over Glasgow, my recommendation is to dash to Waterstones and ...
