On the occasion of its 170th publication anniversary, here are the very first reviews of Herman Melville’s leviathan-sized opus of obsession, revenge, and meticulously detailed whaling practices.

The first Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book was published in October 1979. Fans are looking back at how the series has endured in popularity and why it's still relevant.

Novelist Mark Billingham advises readers to angrily launch a book across the room after 20 non-gripping pages – but almost 40% of people will keep going right to the end.

The Zanzibar-born novelist is known for his postcolonial works, examining refugee life in England and the effects of empire. He is the first Black person awarded the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993

From chapter books to graphic novels, challenged literature provides a snapshot into some of the anxieties that drive media censorship.

An ‘exceptionally rare’ first edition of Mary Shelley’s gothic classic has broken the world auction record for a printed work by a woman

Is the manuscript tucked away somewhere? Was it destroyed? Or are the few known chapters all that ever existed? A deep dive into one of literature's most enduring riddles.

It's one of the first questions new authors ask: "How long should my book be? How many words should I write?" Here is some useful guidance, from children's books to fantasy novels.

Many authors and publishers now see the social networking site as a "necessary evil".

In Herman Melville’s masterpiece Moby Dick the author is eager to tell us a tale of good and evil. These two opposing forces are represented everywhere throughout his story, the vying battle between the two is the back bone of the entire novel. Good versus evil, love against hate, forgiveness or revenge, they are all explored throughout its many pages. This is one of the reasons for its enduring popularity amongst readers.

The stories we love best are filled with subtle (and not-so-subtle) lessons and perspectives. These quotes from 15 modern Canadian books offer unique insights into the lives we live.

John Tresch’s “The Reason for the Darkness of the Night” presents the multitalented author’s fascination with science.

AuthorSHARE, a royalty fund set up by two used booksellers with support from industry bodies, is calling for more retailers to participate

When I first began hearing that emigres from Communist countries see America inching towards totalitarianism, I didn't take it seriously. Totalitarianism was Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which the state controlled everyone through the infliction of pain and terror. Whatever our problems in America, we don't have that, or anything close to it.

After the author and TV personality’s death, his longtime assistant was left to finish his last book, a world travel guide.

In 2013, Sheri Holman had just turned 47 and her life was falling apart. Raised in Virginia by a struggling single mom, Holman had bootstrapped herself through college to earn a theater degree, then moved to New York City to pursue acting. When that plan proved unworkable, Holman took a series of temp jobs in publishing, eventually becoming an assistant to an influential literary agent.

Robert Kneitinger has had four children's books on Amazon. The first two sold out and he's in the process of writing and illustrating two new books. Diagnosed with Aspergers, Robert recalls his school years were difficult. He says "I was labeled as being different, they made my life so hard."

“Books feed and cure and chortle and collide,” Gwendolyn Brooks wrote in her 1969 ode to why we read. For Kafka, a book was “the axe for the frozen sea inside us”; for Galileo, nothing less than a source of superhuman powers. “Without the writing of books, there is no history, there is no concept of humanity,” Hermann Hesse wrote in his visionary 1930 meditation on “the magic of the book” and why we will always remain under its generous spell, no matter how the technologies of reading may change.

More than 150 years before Oprah and Reese Witherspoon, women began reading together in groups, seeking wisdom from the books and from one another.

What happens when the Censor Ship sails up to shore and claims some problematic kids' books? Enjoy this poem and find out.