Hello - I've signed up to be a Bookfella for the Scottish Book Trust. The purpose of a Bookfella is two-fold: to raise money for the SBT and to encourage more men to read for pleasure (apparently we're not very good at it.) 

Re. the first bit... at some point between now and the end of April 2017, I'll be climbing a big hill in a gale and reading a passage from the Storm Scene in King Lear ("Blow winds, and crack your cheeks" etc). There will be video evidence, so if you'd like to see me getting beaten up by a real storm while mangling one of the best rants in Shakespeare, please sponsor me using the button below. 

Re. the second bit... for Book Week Scotland (21-27 November), I'll be counting down my Top 40 favourite books about the outdoors, both on Twitter (@outdoorscots) and in my outdoors column in the Scotsman Saturday magazine (editions of 19 and 26 November). Will this cause lovers of writing about the outdoors to disagree bitterly with some / many / all of my choices? Probably. Will it inspire a few more fellas to read for pleasure? Hopefully. 

The Scottish Book Trust plans to use the money raised by its Bookfellas initiative to help fund its literacy programmes, which change the lives of people in Scotland through reading and writing. To find out more, visit http://scottishbooktrust.com/about/what-we-do