Bored at Work? Site Disguises Classic Lit

Weekly installments end with a choice

(NEWSER) - Fantasy fans who’d like a role in the action can turn to literature’s latest incarnation: the online Web-novel, or wovel, NPR reports. Readers can click and read a chapter each week. Then, “at the end of every installment, there's a binary plot branch point with a vote button,” says the founder of online and traditional publisher Underland Press. More»

No. 1 is Alexandria, Virginia

(NEWSER) - If you think America's bookworms live in New York or San Francisco, think again. Amazon has released its list of the country's 20 most well-read cities, and they hail from such states as Michigan and Florida, reports Reuters . Top honors goes to Virginia's Alexandria, and though Berkeley and Cambridge do indeed make the top five, they're joined by Ann Arbor and Boulder. Wait til you see who's sixth: More»

Stephen King, Christopher Hitchens make the cut

(NEWSER) - If you need a book recommendation for holiday reading, look no further than the New York Times ' list of the 10 best books of the year. Five are fiction and five non-fiction:

• 11/22/63 by Stephen King: A time portal sends an English teacher back to 1958 to try and stop Lee Harvey Oswald. King reflects "on questions of memory, fate, and free will as he richly evokes midcentury America."
• Swamplandia! By Karen Russell: "Exuberantly inventive language" marks this story of "a heroine who is wise beyond her years" as she tries to preserve her family's way of life. Also, an alligator theme park is involved.

'News of a Kidnapping' selling out after Mousavi comment

(NEWSER) - Want to know what it’s like to be an Iranian opposition leader under house arrest? Read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s News of a Kidnapping. Ever since Mir Hossein Mousavi told his daughters the Colombian novel describes “my situation in captivity,” it’s been flying off the shelves in Iran, reports the Guardian . Mousavi’s comment to his daughters became an online sensation among Iran’s wired opposition; now, people are “queuing up to buy the book as if they were queuing up to buy a new Harry Potter,” said a Tehran journalist. More»

But much uncertainty remains on whether novel will see the light of day

(NEWSER) - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo kicked off a trilogy of international bestsellers—and though author Stieg Larsson died in 2004, rumors of another novel’s existence are gaining traction. Plot details have emerged, but the book’s fate remains murky as Larsson’s family and his former girlfriend battle over his estate, the Los Angeles Times reports. The unpublished novel tells the story of heroine Lisbeth Salander’s estranged twin, Camilla, who appeared only briefly in The Girl Who Played With Fire, said Larsson’s friend Kurdo Baksi. More»