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Editor's picks

- David Lodge's top 10 HG Wells books
  
  The novelist selects his favourites from the vast and various output of The Time Machine author
  
  Blake Morrison reviews A Man of Parts by David Lodge
  
  More about HG Wells
- When writers kill
  
  Daniel Kalder: Authors with genuinely red-toothed experience have fascinating insights into the way the world really works to draw on. But where are they?
- Open thread: which sports produce the best literature?
  
  There are plenty of novels about football and cricket, but other sports are hard to find in fiction. Where are the best contenders?
  - Podcast: Cricket and cycling
- Kafka's Metamorphosis given 'OMG so cute' makeover
  
  News: Meowmorphosis is latest literary 'remix', transforming tortured hero into 'an adorable kitten'
  - Franz Kafka
- You're Looking Very Well by Lewis Wolpert
  
  Review: Will Self looks ahead to the bleak prospect of an ageing population
- Helen Oxenbury: books and babies
  
  Audio slideshow: Award-winning illustrator Helen Oxenbury explains how parenthood propelled her into drawing and how the Beano inspired her latest book
- Anne Enright: 'I was always on the side. Like a salad'
  
  Anne Enright talks to Sean O'Hagan about life after winning the Booker, the appeal of flawed women and why her latest novel is a 'less uneasy' read than The Gathering
  - Review: The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
- An insider's guide to book fairs
  
  If you're not in the trade, they can be confusing occasions. These are some useful pointers for novice buyers
- Collecting is a human frailty, preyed upon by dealing ... Your advice to novice collectors is good: just buy what you like, then if it ain't selling, you can always keep it
  mmoloney
  commenting on An insider's guide to book fairs
- Navy Seal memoir raced into print
  
  News: US publisher speeds publication of Seal Team Six in wake of elite soldiers' killing of Osama bin Laden
  - Abbottabad: pretty town, pity about the poem
  - Giles Foden on the naming of al-Qaida
- The literary clock is ticking ...
  
  We asked you to help us build 24 hours of fictional time using lines from literature. See what you've come up with so far - and help us fill in the final gaps
- Allan Ahlberg - a life in writing
  
  Allan Ahlberg, who, with his wife Janet, produced the children's classics The Jolly Postman, Burglar Bill and Peepo!, talks to Michelle Pauli about the ingredients for a successful picture book
- The City and the City by China Miéville
  
  Reader review: If Philip K Dick had ever written a mainstream novel, this is what it would be like, says anothergeek
- The Doll
  
  The Doll, a short story by Daphne du Maurier that was lost for more than 70 years
- The secret life of libraries
  
  They have a dusty image, but libraries are at the heart of our communities. With the axe about to fall, Bella Bathurst reveals what we're about to lose
- The digested read
  
  At Last by Edward St Aubyn: 'Patrick Melrose smiled wanly. He had little interest in the snobbish musings of his mother's friends; he much preferred his own snobbish musings.'
  - More digested reads

Latest news

Australian 'Orange prize' to promote women writers' status

4 May 2011: 'Systemic exclusion' prompts plans for prize to 'respect and reward' marginalised authors
Andrew Morton publishes royal wedding book in record time

3 May 2011: William and Kate title in shops within 72 hours of marriage
TV war historian Professor Richard Holmes dies

1 May 2011: Richard Holmes presented BBC documentaries and wrote more than 20 books on warfare
Greek court rules that adoptive son is Kazantzakis heir

29 Apr 2011: Feud over the rights to the work of Zorba the Greek's author Nikos Kazantzakis intensifies despite ruling

All News

Latest blogposts

Books blog

A misplaced May Day dream for the masses

29 Apr 2011: Sam Jordison: May Day by John Sommerfield describes a society on the edge. The parallels with today are obvious – but it's the differences that make it worth reading
Books blog

The advantages of writing in bed

28 Apr 2011: Robert McCrum: Writers like Orwell, Proust and Churchill liked doing it. Could it have been because writing in bed can help access the unconscious?
Books blog

Open thread: reveal your favourite literary pseudonyms

27 Apr 2011: We know a great deal about Anonymous but less about its sibling Pseudonymous. As a book authored under a disguised name makes the Orwell shortlist for the first time, we look at why authors hide their identity – and ask for your favourites
Books blog

The art of physical criticism

27 Apr 2011: Sam Jordison: From glue and scissors to tearing or throwing, how do you vent your frustration with substandard books? And have you ever saved a precious tome for the best possible conditions?

Latest features

Children's books

Postcard from Palestine

3 May 2011:
Hussam Gosheh tells the dramatic story of of how onions saved the day at a book festival in Jerusalem
Paul Allen: 'I think Bill Gates was surprised by my book. He'll want an intense discussion about it'

2 May 2011: The Microsoft co-founder and multi-billionaire talks about his autobiography in which describes his bizarre working relationship with Bill Gates – and how it was he, not Gates, who had the visionary ideas
Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven – review

1 May 2011: Anatol Lieven's clear-sighted study asks if Pakistan has lost control of its international narrative

All Features

Talking points

Should The Great Gatsby really be called Drink Responsibly?

An American website is retitling books to sum up the actual content. Which books do you think could use a more literal literary label?
I would present you with a small box of buckberries Carol except they are not very nice apparently - best left to deer and other 'critters' of the Eastern US. Have some nice plump blueberries instead.
dickensdesk
commenting on Poem of the week: Redbirds by Sara Teasdale

Tips, links and suggestions

Hannah Freeman: Please let us know what else you'd like to read on the site, and what isn't working

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Latest Guardian and Observer reviews

Hitch 22: A Memoir
By Christopher Hitchens

Review by Nicholas Lezard
Nocturne: A Journey in Search of Moonlight
By James Attlee

Review by Bella Bathurst
The Forgotten Waltz
By Anne Enright

Review by Hermione Lee
Scenes from an Impending Marriage: A Prenuptial Memoir
By Adrian Tomine

Review by Rachel Cooke
You're Looking Very Well: The Surprising Nature of Getting Old
By Lewis Wolpert

Review by Will Self
Chinaman
By Shehan Karunatilaka

Review by Tishani Doshi
The Last Werewolf
By Glen Duncan

Review by Steven Poole
I Found it at the Movies: Reflections of a Cinephile
By Philip French

Review by Christopher Bray
New Collected Poems
By Iain Crichton Smith (author) and Matt McGuire (edited by)

Review by Jay Parini
Monsieur Linh and His Child
By Philippe Claudel (author) and Euan Cameron (translator)

Review by Ophelia Field
Moth Smoke
By Mohsin Hamid

Review by Rachel Aspden
Pakistan: A Hard Country
By Anatol Lieven

Review by Jason Burke
Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
By Jane McGonigal

Review by Tom Chatfield
The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee
By Sarah Silverman
The Illumination
By Kevin Brockmeier

Review by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain
By David Eagleman

Review by Peter Forbes
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
By James Gleick

Review by Ian Pindar
Lucky Break
By Esther Freud

Review by Susanna Rustin
Napoleon & St Helena: On the Island of Exile
By Johannes Willms
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them
By Elif Batuman

Review by Ian Sansom

See all reviews

Latest reader reviews

In a Strange Room
by Damon Galgut

Reviewed by michaelamherst
Invisible
by Paul Auster

Reviewed by michaelamherst
Out of Shadows
by Jason Wallace

Reviewed by Workshop
The Waiting Room
by F. G. Cottam

Reviewed by stpauli
Dazzle
by John Gardiner and Andrew Parr

Reviewed by RachelaGauci
The City and the City
by China Mieville

Reviewed by anothergeek
Sun Dance
by Charlie Rogers

Reviewed by hawksbridge
Maurice Guest
by Henry Handel Richardson

Reviewed by JimU49
The Peregrine
by J. A. Baker (author) and Robert Macfarlane (introduction by)

Reviewed by JimU49
Boy
by James Hanley

Reviewed by JimU49
The Book of Disquiet
by Fernando Pessoa (author) and Margaret Jull Costa (translator)

Reviewed by Davidor
The Little Stranger
by Sarah Waters

Reviewed by ogibson
The Unconsoled
by Kazuo Ishiguro

Reviewed by Richpessoa
Germania: A Personal History of Germans Ancient and Modern
by Simon Winder

Reviewed by tiojo
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim
by Jonathan Coe

Reviewed by acommonreader
Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay
by John Lanchester

Reviewed by ajk77
Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson

Reviewed by ajk77
Reservation Blues
by Sherman Alexie

Reviewed by ajk77
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
by Sherman Alexie

Reviewed by ajk77
Before I Go to Sleep
by S. J. Watson

Reviewed by Readaholic
Tilly Greenway and the Secrets of the Ancient Keys: Book One: Watchers
by Essi Tolling (author), Meraylah Allwood (illustrator) and Catherine Brooks (illustrator)

Reviewed by worldofbooks
Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by John Joseph Adams

Reviewed by anothergeek
Master Mariner: Bk. 1: Running Proud
by Nicholas Monsarrat

Reviewed by BigAcky
Case Histories
by Kate Atkinson

Reviewed by richard24
The Children's Book
by A. S. Byatt

Reviewed by KFBarnacle
Torment
by Lauren Kate

Reviewed by shimeka
Colonel Chabert
by Honore de Balzac (author), Andrew Brown (translator) and Gina Wilson (foreword by)

Reviewed by zoomy
The Camel Trail
by Judy Jackson

Reviewed by bookaweek
The Crimson Petal and the White
by Michel Faber

Reviewed by stpauli
And Another Thing...
by Eoin Colfer

Reviewed by anothergeek
Charlotte Gray
by Sebastian Faulks

Reviewed by escapology
The Scar-crow Men: Sword of Albion 2
by Mark Chadbourn

Reviewed by disrepdog
The Look and Shape of England
by Nigel Moor

Reviewed by nigelmoor
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
by Mark Hodder

Reviewed by kayfilex
The Pale King
by David Foster Wallace

Reviewed by blindboy2
Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles
by Michael Moorcock

Reviewed by anothergeek
A Week in December
by Sebastian Faulks

Reviewed by ConnorBloomfield
The Impressionist
by Hari Kunzru

Reviewed by heteronym
The Last Novel
by David Markson

Reviewed by heteronym
Cold Skin
by Albert Sanchez Pinol

Reviewed by Tunyo

Latest video

Vivienne Westwood: 'Punk was just an excuse for people to run around' - video

Video: Vivienne Westwood on punk, art, education and why a book is the best status symbol

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