On the 186th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy’s birth, Alister Pearson remembers the life of the famous writer, philosopher and political thinker.

Annie Muir finds manuscripts worth pressing up against the glass for, at the William Blake exhibition

Harriet Hill-Payne, The Mancunion’s own Arts editor, talks to Books about Great Expectations

Online book recommendation sites get away from best-seller lists and towards personally tailored selections

With an abundance of gastronomic literature on offer, Maddy Hubbard takes us through the essentials. First up: Bourdain.

We want your creative writing

Cuts have left public libraries struggling to survive. Will they make it? And what will it mean if they don’t?

The Portico Library serves up a slice of secret Manchester, and a good slice of cake too

The Comic Collective provides some anime classics, in the form of both film and book, to usher in new fans

As the worlds of dusty books and shiny screens collide, is the future of fiction lost? Twitter suggests not.

Remember how fun reading was when you were a kid? Joelle Jefferis advocates reigniting the adventure

The politically timed re-release of We Got Him!: A Memoir of the Hunt and Capture of Saddam Hussein rankles

Phillipa Moran looks at the novel Room in its contemporary, and not at all fictional, context

We asked fellow Mancunion editor, Emily Clark, what she has been reading (and drinking) this week

Want to write for Books?

This week Ata Rahman, history student and co-editor of the Manchester Historian answers to Book Club

We ask whether a film adaptation can ever be as good as the original book