Wrapped Up In Books

Not a lot of people know that there is a public library in the heart of Glasgow. In the basement of the GOMA in Royal Exchange Square is an extensive library and decent coffee shop. It's free to join, has PC/Internet facilities as well as some really good books including recent popular prize winning fiction and a collection of classics.

For the past few years I have been working my way through the classics section. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina took three months to read, despite skipping a chapter about farming. Dickens' Great Expectations was surprisingly funny in places. On the Road by Jack Kerouack proved that being young and restless was just as fun in the 1950s as it was in the 1990s. The Pride of Miss Jean Brodie portraying the "Creme de la Creme" of female characters. All have been a adventure.

My current labour of love is Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, which I have just renewed for the second time (eight weeks and counting!). Also for the second time, someone commented that I would be quicker watching the film.

One of the best films ever made, a three hour epic staring the beautiful Vivienne Leigh. I stayed up late as a teenager to watch it once, although I don't remember much of it beyond the famous last line.

Leigh is my Scarlet O'Hara and Clarke Gable is Rhett in my mind's eye because of this. As with all good books, reading creates a picture in my head of the characters, places and period in history. I will watch the film again when I'm finished. In the meantime my imagination fuelled by the wonderful writing of Margaret Mitchell is keeping me entertained through winter.