Daily Bookshot: A week of Van Booy and Barry

A week of Van Booy and Barry, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

If you’ve been following RobAroundBooks lately then you will have noticed, aside from the lethargic pace, that there’s been a proliferation in the focus on short story collections. And this week it’s going to look even more like that as I gear up for one of my most anticipated literary events of 2010 (If I’m being honest, I’m beside myself with excitement ).

The event in question is an Edinburgh Book Festival event, and the hosts are none other than demi-god, Simon Van Booy, and Irish writer, Kevin Barry. The event is one week away at the time of writing, and I have that much time to digest as many of the stories of both writers as I can.

With Simon Van Booy this not a real problem. I am wholly familiar with his literary talent already, and I know what a remarkable storyteller he is (hence the tag, ‘demigod’ ). That said, I have never worked my way through his debut collection The Secret Lives of People in Love – recently republished in the UK by Beautiful Books; in the US by Harper Perennial – and I want to ensure that I fully absorb it before next week’s event (you can catch up with my ‘forethoughts’ on the collection HERE).

Kevin Barry is an altogether different matter. A couple of weeks ago I’d never heard of the Irish author let alone read any of his literary creations. So I have a lot of catching up to do. That ‘catching up’ will mainly be achieved through reading his short story collection, There Are Little Kingdoms (Stinging Fly Press), and you can read my initial ‘forethoughts’ on this collection, HERE.

So I guess I’m using today’s Daily Bookshot to apologise ahead of time for the deluge of Simon Van Booy and Kevin Barry themed material that will be hitting RobAroundBooks over the next few days. I will try to include as much general stuff as I can, to try and balance things out a bit. But with my reading priority very much being on these two writers – and for good reason I’m sure you’ll agree – the scales are more than likely going to be leaning in the direction of Van Booy/Barry.

So if you’re not a Simon Van Booy and/or a Kevin Barry fan then I apologise in advance. But if you are then think what a wonderfully exciting week it’s going to be this week on RobAroundBooks, for both of us .