The main library in Kirkcaldy has been refurbished recently and they seem to have left out half of the books, it was bad enough before book-wise, the ones I want always seem to be elsewhere according to the catalogue.

Anyway today I had a look around the Dunfermline library, that one which was the very first Carnegie library as Andrew Carnegie was born just down the road. The choice was much better as I thought it would be. So I came home with:

1. Cargo of Eagles by Margery Allingham. I’ve just realised that this book was first published in 1966 and was unfinished when Allingham died, but her husband finished it. I wonder if it will be obvious when he takes over the writing.

2. The Outsider by Albert Camus. I haven’t read anything by him and I think it’s about time I did.

3. The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin. The blurb on the front cover says – A classic detective story and a ludicrous literary farce. Guardian That could be just what I need at the moment.

4. The Green Man by Jane Gardam and Mary Fedden. I’ve always been interested in the Green Man and apparently in this book he becomes the missing god of our poor contemporary mythology, bridging the gap between the world beyond and this.

5. Dead Cold by Louise Penny. This is another Three Pines murder mystery by the Canadian author.

6. East Fortune by James Runcie. I think this would count as a Scottish novel as the author now lives in Edinburgh and is of Scottish heritage despite the fact that his father was the archbishop of Canterbury.

Well, that should keep me busy for a wee while. I was supposed to be avoiding the library and concentrating on my own many unread books, but what can you do when you find yourself through no fault of your own in Dunfermline with a freezing wind going through your bones – and then it starts to rain! I looked at Primark and opted for the library instead.