IT might sound unlikely but the cheapest and best entertainment in town has to be the occasional book reading by authors in bookshops. Admission is usually free and in Waterstones at least they treat the audience to a couple of glasses of plonk.
On Tuesday the one-time enfant terrible (his words) of American literature Jay Mclnerney read from his latest book, The Last Of The Savages. It was hugely entertaining, prompting just about everybody in the audience, which included writer Colm Toibin and poet Derek Mnhon, to buy a book and have it signed.
As an Irish-American, Jay said he had been badgering his publishers to send him to Dublin for the past five years - not least because "it's nice to be some place where I'm not constantly asked to spell my name". He also treated us to a reading of his book-in-progress in whid the main female character is a supermodel called Philomena.
At question-time I was going to suggest that while the character sounded good, her name ranks way up there with Assumpta as an unlikely handle for the catwalk babe, but before I could get my hand in the air, a man with an infinitely more cerebral point asked a question that included the word "disenfranchise". Jay looked slightly alarmed. It was followed by something about "the elliptical iconoclastic equation", which had me shifting uneasily in bewilderment.
Jay was very gracious and funny throughout questiontime, and answered in the sort of calming voice you'd use to talk a crazy person in off a ledge.