Reading Copy Book Blog

The Nebula Awards have been recognizing and rewarding greatness in science fiction writing since 1965. Nebulas are handed out by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America and their annual event celebrates the books of the previous year. The 2011 winners have just been announced: Novel Winner: Among Others by Jo Walton Novella Winner: [...]

I just finished reading E.L. James’ wildly-buzzed-about-and-speculated-upon erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey. Look, don’t judge me, it was for book club. And I only reread a few specific passages. No more than three or four times. The truth is, the book is completely, almost inarguably ridiculous. The main male character is a perpetually-single, unattainable, [...]

Review of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – an absolutely enchanting book, nearly impossible to put down.

Actor and comedian Stephen Fry has expressed disgust over the lawyers for the production of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” going after a Southampton pub with legal action.

Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy is now available in a single beautiful volume, published by Everyman’s Library.

The stories of King Arthur had a special magic for me when I was growing up. I have visited the castle in Cornwall that is called Tintagel several times (even though it was built in Norman times and has nothing to do with Arthur) and it was easy to imagine the Knights of the Roundtable [...]

Legendary science fiction and fantasy author Anne McCaffrey has died in Ireland after suffering a stroke. She is famous for penning the Dragonriders of Pern series. McCaffrey was the first female to win a Hugo Award for fiction, the first woman to win a Nebula Award, and achieved popular success with her novels. McCaffrey published [...]

Terry Pratchett’s Snuff is one of the fastest-selling novels in history after just three days on sale. UK booksellers have sold more than 54,000 copies of Pratchett’s 39th Discworld novel, according to The Bookseller Magazine. It’s the fastest selling hardback since Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol in 2009. AbeBooks still has a few signed copies [...]

Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast saga has a new installment – 62 years after the last one. Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone have now been joined by Titus Awakes after the discovery of a long lost manuscript. Rumors of a fourth novel circulated for years but were always just rumors. In January 2010 the granddaughter of [...]

My colleague Beth offers this video review of The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Apparently, a million copies of this book have been sold. In 1941 a young boy lies bedridden from pneumonia. His perpetually disheveled a father, an immigrant with broken English, shuffles into his bedroom carrying a book. The boy wants to know [...]