Oh, For the Love of Books Set in Scotland

I just finished the third book in Alexander McCall Smith's series, 44 Scotland Street, and find that at some point I shall have to purchase the series to keep on my own shelves. These books are full of interesting material, so much of which I'll have to go back and re-read, digest, and ponder. They would make great book club material if I ever make my way to being involved in a book club.

Here's an excerpt which I consider one of the most beautiful/truly romantic things I have read since the end of Diana Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross, or Mama Day by Gloria Naylor:

He looked at her and thought: I have found myself in you. Bless you. And then he thought: what a strange, old-fashioned thing to think. Bless you. But what other way was there of saying that you wanted only good for somebody, that you wanted the world to be kind to her, to cherish her? Only old-fashioned words would do for that (Love Over Scotland, 338).

The book itself is not a romance, lest you get the wrong impression. The first two volumes at least were published serially in The Scotsman. I don't know that about this last one because the author's note at the beginning didn't mention it. It's really about Edinburgh, and the people who live there.

It's funny, I can't say much about McCall Smith's other work because I haven't experienced much of it yet. I will go ahead and say that I read Portuguese Irregular Verbs and didn't really care for it. I started The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, which I will return to, but haven't yet made it past the first chapter. I'm going to try The Sunday Philosophy Club, starting in just a few minutes, Parker willing. These are each first books in separate series, so while I am experiencing the author's work in breadth, I don't know what to make of it as a whole yet.

On another note, I love it when books I'm reading reference other books I have read and enjoyed. Love Over Scotland references The End of the Affair at one point in the mind of one of it's characters, which is the first book I ever read by Graham Greene. (Some of his books I love and some of them I don't care for. The End of the Affair is one of the ones I love.)

I don't mean to give the impression, with the title of this post, that all of the novel's mentioned herein are set in Scotland, although I realize that is exactly what is implied. Only two of the McCall Smith series are, as well as the Gabaldon. The Naylor is set on an imaginary island off the coast of Georgia, and the Greene is set in England if I remember correctly.