books

It's more than just tradition.

Shakespeare’s cultural position is pretty secure. He doesn’t need to be rescued from obscurity. Yet certain plays tend to dominate bookshelves, stages, and classrooms, leaving many others largely unread and unperformed.

Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez after the announcement that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982

'One Hundred Years of Solitude' changed world literature, but there was much more than magic involved.

With a little help from Reddit, the librarian who unearthed the work identified it as a copy of the rare Cedid Atlas.

On this date in 1789, Boston bookseller Isaiah Thomas and Company published The Power of Sympathy: or, The Triumph of Nature, which is generally considered to be the first American novel.

A new report in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest says no.

A new book offers an absorbing account of the obelisk’s place in human civilization.

Listen to two rare recordings of J.R.R. Tolkien reading excerpts from his books.

A tradition that dates back to the 1940s has just been resurrected.

RBG, Scalia, and the rest of the gang love these authors just as much as we do.

Patience and Fortitude did not get a warm reception in 1911: residents thought they were "monstrosities."

David Bowie will always be remembered as a seminal figure in the worlds of music, fashion, and film. But he was also a voracious reader who often read a book a day.

Thanks to some hard-working scholars, Harry Potter, Winnie the Pooh, and Bilbo Baggins are now getting kids hooked on the language of Virgil.

Professor Sharon Ruston surveys the scientific background to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, considering contemporary investigations into resuscitation, galvanism, and the possibility of states between life and death.

"Nurse Ratched, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey" / Brian Joseph Davis

Here's what your favorite book characters would look like in real life.

The Folger Shakespeare Library has announced that copies of the First Folio will visit all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico as part of a Shakespeare celebration.

Go forth and download high-res images.

I. W. Taber, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

Whether you've read 'Moby-Dick' cover to cover or just have it propping open your door, here are some little-known facts that will surprise you.

Pickering & Greatbatch via Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

A new analysis of thousands of books finds that bestselling titles from the last few decades contain fewer strongly positive or negative words than older works such as ‘Pride and Prejudice’.