Pop Culture’s Addiction to its Own Past

Could it be that the greatest danger to the future of our music culture is… its past?

An extract from Simon Reynolds’ Retromania, out this month in paperback via Faber.

An extract from Cairo

Read an extract of Cairo, Ahdaf Soueif’s account of the revolution and a personal journey into the city of her childhood.

Solar System: The Book of the App

Solar System has been downloaded about 80,000 times in 10 months. It won The Bookseller 2011 Digital Innovation of the Year as well as Best App of 2011. But, if you were not lucky enough to have an iPad, you were stuck. Not any more.

Joseph Galliano on putting Dear Me together

The original UK edition took three months to compile, an Irish edition took two months, but the American version of the book (released in the UK as Dear Me, More Letters To My Sixteen Year Old Self) was an altogether more marathon task…

Galaxy National Book Awards 2011: More4 Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year

The latest in a series of showcases featuring extracts from the shortlists and winners of the Galaxy National Book Awards 2011. The winners will now compete for the Galaxy Book of the Year. The public can vote for their favourite and the winner will be announced on 21 December.

An extract from Henry’s Demons

Living with Schizophrenia, A Father and Son’s Story.

On a cold February day two months after his 20th birthday, Henry waded into the lethally cold Newhaven estuary and almost drowned. The trees, he said, had told him to do it.

The Etymologicon Competition [closed]

Win a truly one-off signed hardback copy of this season’s stocking filler sensation, including a written explanation by the author of the derivation of the winner’s name!

The Etymologicon #4

Mark Forsyth’s The Etymologicon explores the strange connections between words.The last of four features this week uncovers the origins of famous book titles.

Today: Naked Lunch, Tropic of Cancer and The Grapes of Wrath…

The Etymologicon #3

Mark Forsyth’s The Etymologicon explores the strange connections between words. The third of four features this week uncovers the origins of famous book titles.

Today: Animal Farm and Money…

You Kant Make It Up

Read an extract from You Kant Make It Up, by Gary Hayden, which showcases Strange Ideas From History’s Great Philosphers…

The Etymologicon #2

Mark Forsyth’s The Etymologicon explores the strange connections between words.The second of four features this week uncovers the origins of famous book titles.

Today: Blind Assassin, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and War and Peace…

The Etymologicon #1

Mark Forsyth’s The Etymologicon explores the strange connections between words.The first of four features this week uncovers the origins of famous book titles.

Today: Wuthering Heights, and Lord of the Rings…

Book Heaven / Hell: Eamonn Gearon

We proudly present the first in a new series of articles, wherein we ask the all important questions: which book would you be happy to spend time with for eternity, and which would you find unbearably hellish to be stuck with?

The very first heaven and hell is with Eamonn Gearon, author of The Sahara.

Dear Me: More Letters to my Sixteen Year Old Self

If you were to write a letter to your 16-year-old self, what would it say? In Dear Me, some of the world’s most famous and best loved celebrities, from actors to chefs, directors to musicians, have written just such a letter.

Noel Fielding is the Madcap Shambleton

Comedian, actor and artist Noel Fielding is best known for playing Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh with comedy partner Julian Barratt and as a team captain on TV show Never Mind The Buzzcocks. His new TV series will be shown on E4 in the autumn. Watch him do some painting.

The October Competition [closed]

This month, for three Bookhugger readers, we have an eclectic choice of World War II non-fiction from Faber; two Jeffrey Eugenides titles from Simon & Schuster and magical historical fiction from Bloomsbury Publishing.

Anna Reid discusses her new book Leningrad

On 8 September 1941, eleven short weeks after Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, his brutal surprise attack on the Soviet Union, Leningrad was surrounded. Had the city fallen, the history of the Second World War – and of the twentieth century – would have been very different.

Get to know the Women of the Cousin’s War

The Women of the Cousin’s War is a beautifully illustrated work with rare portraits and source materials, as well as fascinating insights into the inspiration behind Philippa Gregory’s writing. Watch out for a competition later this week!

Discover A Chaplain at Gallipoli, The Great War Diaries of Kenneth Best

Many chaplains were not permitted to go near the Front in the First World War – others insisted on doing so, like Kenneth Best in the Gallipoli Campaign. In his diary we follow his progress through his initial training in Egypt and on to his arrival in Gallipoli in May 1915.

Win a set of Canongate Canons! [closed]

To celebrate the launch of Canongate’s Canons imprint, new editions of much-loved books from the publisher’s backlist, one lucky Boolkhugger reader will win a set of the first 12 titles.

Discover A More Perfect Heaven

Read the first chapter of A More Perfect Heaven, How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos, by Dava Sobel, published this month via Bloomsbury.

Watch the trailer for Neil Strauss’ Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead

Neil Strauss, author of The Game and dubbed ‘the Mike Tyson of rock’n'roll celeb therapy-journalism’, delves into the psyche of the world’s most famous rock stars in Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead.