Playing favourites: how do you pick Scotland's best book?

Voting is now open for Scotland's Favourite Book, with 30 well-loved novels vying to be crowned the winner in a special BBC Scotland programme to be screened in October. The longlist of 30 titles was selected by a panel of experts, in collaboration with the Scottish Book Trust - among them PROFESSOR WILLY MALEY of the University of Glasgow. Here, he explores why we find it so tough to pick our favourite read, and reflects on a few of the Scottish works that didn't quite make the cut