Here at Flavorwire, we’re suckers for a great book cover — even if that book cover never actually made it into production. After all, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that sometimes the best book covers come from those designing without the constraints of publicity departments or authorial preferences. To that end, after the jump you will find a collection of unofficial book covers for famous works — created by students, career designers, or mysterious people on the Internet — that we totally love. Publishing houses, take note: we would buy these if ever we saw them in the pulpy flesh. Did we miss your favorite (or your own)? Link us to more literary design goodness in the comments. … Read More
Douglas Adams
Awesome Infographic: The Best-Selling Sci-Fi Books of All Time
Science-fiction is no longer a niche genre. Sure, there are those who never touch the stuff, but sci-fi and fantasy are forever creeping closer to the mainstream, whether in full-fledged novels or by sneaking into contemporary literary fiction. That said, sci-fi has always been wildly popular among those who love it — the genre has a stable of incredibly loyal fans who have shot their favorite books up the best-seller list for years. To that point, Book Patrol has created this inforgaphic the best-selling science fiction books of all time, and though their standards for what constituted sci-fi are a little wide (The Lord of the Rings?), we still think it’s pretty interesting — and we’re adding to our reading lists as we speak. … Read More
Awesome Photos of Writers Hanging Out Together
There’s something strangely inspiring about photographs of visionaries in the same room — we don’t know quite what it is, but the idea of (what we imagine to be) a profound meeting of minds captured on film always manages to get us excited. To that end, we put together a collection of some very excellent photographs of awesome musicians hanging out together a couple of months ago, but it’s not just musical types who like to gather in inspiring combinations. Writers, it seems, also enjoy each other’s company (whatever they might say to the contrary). Click through to see our photo roundup of writers hanging out with other writers, with a hat tip to the wonderful Tumblr Awesome People Hanging Out Together for inspiration and a few of the shots. … Read More
What Your Favorite YA Series Says About You
This week, NPR published their list of the 100 Best YA Novels of all time — as nominated by their readers and then selected by a panel of judges. While we have our reservations about the ranking (Twilight before Earthsea?), the poll reminded us of the fact that no matter how many serious books grace their shelves, every devoted reader has at least one favorite YA series from their childhood (or, um, more recently than that) that they still think is pretty great. After all, of the 100 entries on NPR’s list, almost half of them weren’t novels at all, but rather series of novels at least three books long. So in case you’re wondering what that lingering affinity for Weetzie Bat means for your life on a grand scale, or wondering what strangers on the train think when they see you reading Vampire Academy, we’re here to help. Click through to find out what your favorite YA series says about you, and let us know if we’ve got you pegged — or if we’re totally off the mark — in the comments. … Read More
10 Artifacts from Literature That We Wish Were Real
This week, we stumbled upon some interesting news: that a specific strain of fictional marijuana — Elephant Crush, from Mark Haskell Smith’s Baked — had been created in the real world. “I’m totally surprised and delighted that someone would grow a fictional strain,” Smith said. “What happens when you smoke it? Do you enter a fictional world?” If only. Inspired by this recent development, we got to thinking about some fictional items from literature that we wish were real — and we’re talking real real, not collector’s item real. Click through to see what we came up with, and let us know which fictional objects you dream of owning in the comments. … Read More
10 of the Weirdest Children’s Book Authors of All Time
We don’t know about you, but here at Flavorpill, we were pretty weird kids — and now that the truth has come out, and we know that you really are what you read, we’re starting to wonder whether that wasn’t because of the books we were reading. Not that we’re sorry, or anything. Weird people are the best. One of the authors influencing our childhood strangeness was prolific children’s book and YA author Bruce Coville, who turned 62 this week, so to celebrate his birthday, we’ve put together a list of the all-time weirdest authors of children’s and YA fiction — in our own estimation, of course. Click through to read who we picked, and let us know if we missed your super-strange favorite in the comments — we’re always looking for new ways to get weirder. … Read More
Celebrating the Many Talents of Douglas Adams
Today would have been Douglas Adams’s 60th birthday, had he not been taken from us so prematurely by a heart attack in 2001, at the age of only 49. Adams was a man of hugely varied talents — as well as a perceptive and frequently hilarious writer and satirist, he was a technological visionary, a social activist, and once played guitar on stage with Pink Floyd. While we adore The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, we do think it’s a bit of a shame that the rest of Adams’ work hasn’t enjoyed similar acclaim. So to celebrate and commemorate one of our favorite authors and 20th century visionaries, here’s a selection of the best of his ouevre. … Read More
A Consensus Cloud of Books Everyone Should Read
Information is Beautiful’s David McCandless has compiled the results of more than 15 esteemed book polls, surveys, and lists in order to create a “consensus cloud” of the most frequently chosen titles across the board. The books contained in the cloud range from the products of Pulitzer Prize-winning authors to Oprah’s Bookclub picks, providing… Read More
Five Fittingly Peculiar Author Tributes
Geeks everywhere got a “raging brainer” (thank you, Professor Farnsworth) last week when a photo surfaced of Ray Bradbury reacting to the bubblegum-pop send-up “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury.” It’s a beautiful thing to learn that one of the greatest sci-fi writers of all time lived long enough to see his own tribute — even if it was foul-mouthed and tongue-in-cheek. With that in mind, here are five other (more SFW) tributes to some famous authors who are no longer with us. … Read More
Daily Dose Pick: And Another Thing…
And Another Thing… is the sixth installment in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy “trilogy,” and the first not written by Adams himself.
Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer was handpicked by Adams’ estate to continue the series, which all began with Earth’s demolition for a hyperspace bypass. Featuring characters both new and old — including a lovelorn alien and a cheese-based god — And Another Thing… is delightfully faithful to the cult-classic… Read More
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