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Editors' picks

- Zenith: return of an icon
  
  James Smart: The superhero is back in print in Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell's satirical portrait of the 1980s
- In praise of Jean-Paul Sartre
  
  Stuart Jeffries: Fifty years ago, Sartre refused the Nobel prize. His reputation has waned, but his intellectual struggle is more relevant than ever
- Lullaby by Will Self - short story
  
  Podcast: The first in a sponsored series of five sound stories designed to lull you into sleep
- Enid Blyton – not as good as she used to be
  
  Alison Flood: Today the Faraway Tree books seem repetitive and creepy
  - News: Faraway Tree series inspires new film
- UK publishes more books per capita than any other country
  
  News: Only China and US publish more titles in absolute terms, report shows
- Death in picture books
  
  Imogen Russell Williams: A well chosen book on life's only inevitability can speak volumes
- The top 10 civil war novels
  
  Robert Wilton: From Roman legions and medieval mayhem, to the crushing of ideals in the 20th century
- Post your questions for Michael Sandel
  
  Webchat: The superstar Harvard philosophy professor is joining us online on Friday 24 October from 11.45am BST onwards
- Night at the bookshop
  
  Open thread: Waterstones is staging a sleepover. What would you read if you could spend the night in a bookshop?
- Searching for meaning in Kafka
  
  Reading group: Writing so slippery is hard to define - but it leads us to a chilling truth about ourselves
- JM Barrie's inspiration for Peter Pan to become Scotland's Neverland
  
  News: Moat Brae House in Dumfries is to become a children's literature centre, with fairy bower and piratical look-out point
- Stalin by Stephen Kotkin
  
  Review, Sheila Fitzpatrick: This biography is not a study of evil. Stalin was driven by deeply held convictions
- Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz
  
  Review, Laura Miller: A sequel authorised by the Conan Doyle estate has the deduction and the action, but does it scratch the Holmesian itch?
- Being Mortal: Medicine & What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
  
  Review: Gavin Francis on a deeply personal and poignant exploration of how best to look after the elderly
- A Modern Don Juan: Cantos for These Times by Divers Hands
  
  Nicholas Lezard's paperback of the week: Fifteen poets have fun hauling Byron's hero into the modern age
- The Innovators by Walter Isaacson
  
  Review: Peter Conrad on a lucid, thrilling and amusing history of the digital age
- Knowledge by Jennifer Nagel
  
  Review: Steven Poole on a book that explains the perennial problems of epistemology via broken clocks and brains in vats

Latest reviews

GP Gavin Francis salutes a moving exploration of illness and death
Laura Miller on a Sherlock Holmes sequel without Holmes
Sheila Fitzpatrick on Stalin's convictions
Nicholas Lezard's paperback of the week: 15 poets update Byron

Latest news

Joan Didion documentary to be funded by Kickstarter appeal

22 Oct 2014: Author’s nephew hopes to complete documentary about one of America’s most esteemed writers with help of crowdfunding site
Swiss Guard’s Vatican cookbook promises feast fit for a pope

22 Oct 2014: Book includes recipes chosen by Vatican officials and some of the pontiff’s favourite Argentinian dishes
The joy of text – the fall and rise of interactive fiction

22 Oct 2014: The annual Interactive Fiction awards are taking place right now, showcasing the very best new works. By Leigh Alexander
David Peace: why I'm letting Red Ladder stage The Damned United

22 Oct 2014: The novelist has handed over the rights to his Brian Clough novel to the radical Yorkshire theatre company
Tom Hanks publishes short story in the New Yorker

21 Oct 2014: The Apollo 13 star sees his first piece of fiction, about four friends who plan a trip to the moon, in the pages of the illustrious magazine, writes Alison Flood

More books news

Regular series

Top 10s 10hr 10min ago

The top 10 civil war novels

From Roman legions to medieval mayhem, Cavaliers and Roundheads to the crushing of ideals in the 20th century, there is fertile ground for drama in civil war, writes Robert Wilton
Reading group 1 day ago

Reading group: searching for meaning in Kafka

Writing so slippery is hard to define - but it also demonstrates a chilling truth about us, the readers, writes Sam Jordison
Nicholas Lezard's choice 1 day ago

A Modern Don Juan: Cantos for These Times by Divers Hands review – a fun Byron update

Nicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: Rhyming ‘Minerva’s Owl’ with ‘Simon Cowell’, 15 poets have fun hauling Byron’s hero into the modern age
Carol Rumens's poem of the week 2 days ago

Poem of the week: Lament for Stinie Morrison by Kit Wright

The British poet tells the tale of a Russian-Jewish immigrant sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of an unpopular landlord in 1911, writes Carol Rumens
Mary Shelley 4 days ago

My hero: Mary Shelley by Neil Gaiman

Gothic fiction had been all the rage for some time, but Shelley's Frankenstein still changed everything. By Neil Gaiman
More books series

Latest blogposts

Books blog

There was once a campaign for good limericks …

21 Oct 2014: Alison Flood: The founders of the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form are seeking a limerick for each meaning of every word in the English language by 2043. Have long have you got?
Books blog

The joys of judging the Man Booker prize

18 Oct 2014: Controversy, sexism and a lot of reading – judge Sarah Churchwell works out what to do now the party is over
Books blog

How nylons changed literature

18 Oct 2014: Moira Redmond: Stockings were once a marker of a character’s class and aspirations. Then came the nylon revolution. Celebrate 75 years of sheer genius by sharing your highlights of hosiery in fiction
Books blog

Five best writers' sheds – in pictures

17 Oct 2014: As JK Rowling gets planning permission to construct a summer house inspired by Hagrid’s hut, we round up five of the best writer’s sheds. Take a look inside the hideouts which have inspired writers from Virginia Woolf to Henry David Thoreau
Books blog

And then the queen kissed the princess: fairytales get a modern makeover

16 Oct 2014: Authors such as Neil Gaiman and Russell Brand are reinventing the fairytale with gangsta rats, werewolves and queens wearing chain mail, writes Imogen Russell Williams

Talking points

- Revolution by Russell Brand – soft-soap therapy when we need a harder edge

- Tips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?
  
  Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them

Top 10s: authors choose their favourite books

The top 10 modernisers in literature

From the architects who built the postwar world to the writers who predicted its horrors, John Grindrod selects the books that best evoke the postwar pioneering spirit
The top 10 fairytales

From Hans Christian Andersen to Angela Carter’s Bloody Chamber, Marina Warner picks her favourite fairytales
More top 10s

My hero: authors share who inspired them

My hero: Mary Shelley by Neil Gaiman

Gothic fiction had been all the rage for some time, but Shelley's Frankenstein still changed everything. By Neil Gaiman
Patrick Modiano: an appreciation of the Nobel prize in literature winner

As the French writer Patrick Modiano surprises critics to take the 2014 Nobel prize in literature, Rupert Thomson salutes an author who is fascinated by the louche, ambiguous, shadowy world of the Occupation
More from this series

Latest video

Richard Flanagan wins Man Booker prize 2014 – video

Australian writer Richard Flanagan accepts his Man Booker literature prize for his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North

How to draw...

How to draw… Norm (from The World of Norm)

Fancy drawing something abso-flipping-lutely funny today? Go grab a blue pencil, a black pen and a bit of paper and let World Of Norm illustrator Donough O’Malley show you how!
How to make… a paper dragon

Do you love dragons? Let’s make a glorious paper one with Lydia Monks. All you need paper and a pair of scissors and a bit of glue!