At what point do we give up on books? Big data has the answer.
Notoriously slow, the publishing industry is nonetheless capable of rushing things out when it matters — and Royal Engagements are one of those times.
And on the subject of The Engagement, Book Riot has 13 stories of everyday people who fall in love with royalty.
Fairytales don’t shy away from unpleasant truths – and that’s why we need them, argues The Pool.
The Pool also kicks off Short Story Week with Angela Carter’s Ashputtle or The Mother’s Ghost.
Here’s your chance to help highlight an overlooked gem of 2017 for December’s Guardian Reading Group.
Refinery 29 has a list of YA novels to get excited about.
Amazon is under fire for its refusal to pay the the Scottish real living wage.
Virago is to publish a special 20th anniversary edition of The Vagina Monologues.
MI5 monitored author Kingsley Amis after an intercepted letter described him as a “very promising” member of the Communist Party while at Oxford, according to the Telegraph.
eBook deal of the day
The Little Library Cookbook by Kate Young, whose book-inspired recipes you might know from the Guardian, and this blog, is just £1.99 on ebook today.
Podcasts
Guardian Books discusses the AI revolution with physicist Max Tegmark and science fiction writer Ken MacLeod.
The Today Programme discusses the lesser known history of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
The Book Club Review Podcast discusses All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West.
We know she was good at gardening, but what did we make of Sackville-West as a writer?
On the latest What Page Are You On episode, Alice and Bethany interrogate each other about what they read, how they read it, who they listen to when they want recommendations and how they treat the books in their possession.
The Brit Lit Podcast now has an Instagram.
