William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He marries the wrong woman. His life is quiet, and after his death his colleagues remember him rarely.

Reading provides a unique kind of pleasure and no-one should live without it. This title tells us about the experience of reading, why access to books should never be taken for granted, how reading transforms our brains, and how literature can save lives.

Presents stories that take us around the globe and into the intimate lives of the author's characters and the dilemmas and temptations they face. This title tells the little-known history of the only enemy attack on Australian soil during the Great War, when, in January 1915, the outback town of Broken Hill was rocked by horrifying events.

Dr Dolittle lives in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh with his friends Dab-Dab the duck, Jip the dog, Gub-Gub the baby pig, Too-Too the owl, the parrot Polynesia, as well as rabbits in the pantry, white mice in the piano and a crocodile in the fish pond. Why do the animals love Dolittle so?

I'm Tracy Beaker - have you heard of me? I'm stuck in The Dumping Ground just at the moment, but I'm sure my Mum will come and get me soon. A certain Justine-Hateful-Littlewood has stolen my best friend Louise but I don't let it get me down. I never cry. Ever. This is a story all about me.

Describes a year's worth of walking on the ultimate beach: inter-tidal and constantly turning up revelations: mermaid's purses, lugworms, sea potatoes, messages in bottles, buried cars, and a perfect cup from a Cunard liner. This series of meditations was prompted by walking on the wild beaches of Ainsdale Sands between Blackpool and Liverpool.

On his way home from school, the young narrator finds himself wondering how taxes were collected in the Ottoman Empire. He pops into the local library to see if it has a book on the subject. This is his first mistake. Led to a special 'reading room' in a maze under the library by a strange old man, he finds himself imprisoned.

When his fist album was released in 1967, the author was already well known in his native Canada as a poet and novelist, and in the United States as the writer behind Judy Collins' popular recording of 'Suzanne'. This book includes lyrics from that album, together with many of his classics, such as 'Suzanne', 'Joan of Arc' and 'The Chelsea Hotel'.