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 an assortment of novels from the English language canon to the books people actually read.

To Kill A Mockingbird seems to be the leader, with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Crime and Punishment not far behind. Catch-22 also is comparatively large, as is Pride and Prejudice and Anna Karenina. With the prominence of The Lord of the Rings, and His Dark Materials, we seem to be veering into fantasy, and with The Handmaid’s Tale, Fahrenheit 451, and two by George Orwell (1984 and Animal Farm), we notice the prominence of dystopian fiction.

What do you think? Is this a fair reading guide, or does it skew too much in one direction for your taste? Since McCandless used a number of British lists, do you think it unfairly favors our friends in the UK?

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.

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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 saga.

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