Independent Bookshops...

... are thin on the ground these days.

So it was a great pleasure to find a friendly venue in Temple Bar this week. Dutifully carrying my camera fitted with the kit lens (an item much unjustifiably maligned by experts) I wandered through streets I had not seen in years.




I used haunt Cecilia Street in search of music tips from the people in Claddagh Records in the 1980's, but since our local library now has a fine selection of CDs and there is music everywhere thanks to the Internet, shopping in this area seems no longer necessary.

The Gutter Bookshop is not a seedy dive as the name might at first suggest. Also it is in a very photogenic and quiet part of town.



The name references Lord Darlington in Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"No, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."


And the reason for such exertions on a bright, chilly evening in September? Alan Glynn's new thriller, "Bloodland", was given its official launch with a reading by the author. The introduction was helpful in approaching the book. There is so much argy bargy about genre among noir and thriller writers at the moment that it was a relief to be told, simply, that Mr Glynn's preference has always been for Shakespeare's historical plays and that the novel in question, set in Ireland, Italy, the US and the Congo is within the "political thriller" tradition.



I have started reading it and it makes my head spin.
That, for anybody wishing to be thrilled and intrigued, should probably be taken as a compliment.