Books and literary festivals

Sir, – On Sunday evening, at a loose end at the start of the Cúirt Literary Festival in Galway, I thought I would pass the time in the well-appointed lobby of a prominent hotel, where I was pleased to notice in this age of Kindle a selection of books shelved near the stairs. They were charming, old-fashioned hardbacks with things like "Harvard Classics" printed on the spines. Just the job, I thought. I went to remove one of the volumes only to discover that the whole thing was actually a trompe l'oeil illusion, and worse, the books had been literally glued together and were impossible to remove, let alone read.

Or is the theme of this year’s festival “Irony – There’s Still a Lot of It Around”? – Yours, etc,

KEVIN WHELAN,

Bushypark,

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Galway.