Lesley McDowell, in her review of Kenneth C Calman's A Doctor's Line (Herald Arts, August 30) writes that the author talks about a "common­place book".

She goes on to write that "many readers would like to know the reasons behind his literary choices and what impact specific literary extracts had on his own life and work".

As a keeper of commonplace books for many years (I am now on to my sixth) I have always adhered to the definition of such books - "a notebook in which quotations, poems and remarks etc that catch the owner's attention are entered". I have never sought to justify or explain why I have entered any specific item, leaving it to any future reader to gain what information about me they seek from the entries themselves.

That is part of the pleasure of reading such books. The explanation is in the entries themselves. I will now buy Dr Calman's book in the hope of sharing with him the things he found interesting and intriguing enough to want to record in his commonplace book.

There is a great fascination to be found, on looking back through my earlier books, in reading the things I have collected; things that meant a great deal to me at certain times; enough to make me wish to collect and remember them.

Thelma Edwards,

Hume,

Kelso.