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.

An extract from On the State of Egypt

Bestselling historian Alaa Al Aswany, has written an insightful and hugely relevant series of essays on the recent historical and political situation in Egypt and its impact on other Arabic countries.

The Lost Battles, by Jonathan Jones

Michelangelo and Leonardo lived five centuries ago, but their works still obsess our culture, with a popular and universal quality that nothing else matches.

Jonathan Jones chronicles how, in 1504, they competed with each other directly, to paint the walls of a room in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio…

Alex’s Adventures in Numberland

Alex Bellos demonstrates a very cool, and strange way to multiply…

Margaret Heffernan exposes Wilful Blindness

Margaret Heffernan has written an engaging and anecdotal examination of how and why as individuals and as a society we choose to turn a blind eye to the uncomfortable truth…

The entire Solar System in the palm of your hand, or in your pocket…

Best-selling author Marcus Chown leads us on a grand tour through the incredible diversity of planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft that surround the Sun in our cosmic backyard.

All on one of those little iPad thingies!

Win a signed copy of Dog Walks Man: A Six-legged Odyssey [closed]

Read an extract from a touching, witty and thought-provoking exploration of the metaphysical aspects of the simple dog walk. Walking Pete (a standard poodle named after a Ghostbuster) opens the author up to different way of looking at the world. Bookhugger has 5 signed copies to give away…