books

The cover of John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men.’

Here are a few things about this iconic piece of literature that might not have been covered in your high school English class.

A meta-analysis found a greatly reduced level of information retention when people got their data from screens instead of physical books.

Remember when your high school reading list included ‘Atticus,’ ‘Fiesta,’ and ‘The Last Man in Europe’? You will once you see what these books were renamed before they hit bookshelves.

What did Scrooge mean when he said “Bah! Humbug!” anyway?

The meaning of ‘Bah, humbug!’ is a little more layered than what people normally attribute to Ebenezer Scrooge of ‘A Christmas Carol.’

Everyone thought Pleasant Rowland’s idea was terrible. Thankfully, she didn’t listen. Now there’s a new American Girl movie in development, making it the perfect time to read up on what you might not have known about these beloved dolls.

Dickens’s unprecedented celebrity made him the most popular novelist of his century—but the author of Great Expectations, Bleak House, A Christmas Carol, and dozens of other works was more than just a writer.

Actress Bernice Golden as Tess in David Belasco’s stage production of ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles,’ c. 1903.

Thomas Hardy’s memorable heroine was modeled after the last woman to be hanged in Dorset, England.

Willy Wonka and the Oompa-Loompas: Merry band of chocolatiers, or dastardly criminals?

Willy Wonka is undoubtedly an eccentric man. But could he and his band of Oompa-Loompas be hiding a homicidal secret?

Secret societies and dark cabals? You'll find plenty of them in these tomes.

From murder mysteries to secret societies and more, the best dark academia novels from Donna Tartt and other authors capture the macabre in the most unlikely of places.

The precocious pachyderm nearly made the cover. Then Pearl Harbor was attacked.

While the club initially formed as a social group for writers of detective fiction, it did have an official purpose: to uphold a rigid set of standards for crime fiction, and weed out any potential members who wouldn’t agree to meet them.

Library binding is the best way to keep books in circulation.

A very, very specific set of standards can keep books from falling apart. But it's usually too expensive for consumers.

Some of your favorite writers faced rejection.

From James Baldwin to Gertrude Stein and beyond, literature’s most celebrated authors have faced stinging and ruthless rejections.

Anthony Burgess had difficulty creating his slang dictionary.

Penguin Books commissioned the work in 1965, but the "A Clockwork Orange" author only completed several hundred entries before discarding the project.

‘Little Women’ author Louisa May Alcott was also an early suffragette who fought against slavery and registered women to vote.

Here’s how to pepper your next argument with Shakespearean insults.

The cover of Octavia E. Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower.’

When Octavia E. Butler wrote her science fiction novel ‘The Parable of the Sower,’ she vowed to include only things that could actually happen.

Screenwriters and filmmakers made key changes to how these novels finished up.

You might be surprised to see how these movies end, even if you’ve read the books.

TheLibraryMap organizes 100,000 book titles in a way that’s visually pleasing and easy to navigate.

Novelists have used everything from real killers to newsworthy hostage situations to literal white whales to craft their fiction.

You’ll want to add ‘The Deep,’ My Heart Is a Chainsaw,’ ‘Our Share of Night,’ and ‘The Between’ to your reading list.

If you want to expand your horror reading beyond Stephen King, look no further than this list, which features everyone from Mariana Enriquez to Stephen Graham Jones and beyond.

Victor Hugo, Anne Rice, and Thomas Hardy were all believers.

Some, like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Victor Hugo, believed they had communicated with spirits directly; others, like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Hardy, had ghostly encounters they couldn’t explain.

The cover of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.’

The true facts surrounding the classic work are as mysterious and intriguing as the novel itself.

The cover of Emily Wilson’s translation of ‘The Iliad.’

This all-new translation of the Homer epic is six years in the making.

13 Things You Might Not Have Known About John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’

Sorry, Web Scholars: Reading Print Is Better for Comprehension

What 10 Classic Books Were Almost Called

What Does “Bah, Humbug!” Actually Mean?

25 Fascinating Facts About American Girl Dolls

18 Fascinating Facts About Charles Dickens

Remembering Elizabeth Martha Brown, the Convict Who Inspired Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’

Was Willy Wonka a Stone-Cold Serial Killer? One Wild Fan Theory Says Yes

From Murders to Mysterious Codes: 6 of the Best Dark Academia Novels

Dumbo Drop: How World War II Kept Dumbo From Becoming ’TIME’ Magazine’s “Mammal of the Year”

Rules for Murder: The Detection Club and the Evolution of the Murder Mystery

What Is ‘Library Binding’?

20 Famous Authors and Their Rejections

When ‘Clockwork Orange’ Author Anthony Burgess Wrote a Slang Dictionary

10 Fascinating Facts About Louisa May Alcott

You Bull’s Pizzle! Breaking Down 10 Iconic Shakespeare Insults

11 Fascinating Facts About Octavia E. Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower’

15 Books Whose Endings Were Changed for the Movie

Don’t Know What to Read Next? This Comprehensive Book Map Can Help

12 Novels Inspired by Real Events

11 Contemporary Horror Authors to Read (Who Aren’t Stephen King)

9 Authors Who Believed in Ghosts

11 Strange Facts About ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde’

A New Translation of ’The Iliad’ Is Bringing a Truer Ancient Greece to Modern Readers