Chances are you have no idea what precisely the current literary trends are. This creates a problem for writers who decide to pen their first novel decades after completing their educations. But whether you are a writer or a reader, it’s always good to keep learning and growing and to be aware of the world around you. Let’s look at a few hallmarks of contemporary literature. ~ Dina Sleiman Current Events: Contemporary Literary Trends

In an update on its nine month results, Pearson said that sales for Penguin rose 5%. ~ Publisher's Weekly Penguin Sales up 5%

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Most people interested in expanding the intellect populate their home bookshelves with non-fiction, but fiction – especially novel books, those one-of-a-kind works of exquisite creativity, benefit the reader in many ways. Reading well-written novels broadens the horizons, boosts vocabulary and tantalizes the imagination.

Novel books take us away from our own existence and place us in someone else's skin. They afford us the opportunity to examine the world through different eyes. Insights drawn while reading fiction can challenge our own perceptions and subtly shape our thinking. That means books can both endanger and liberate us, if we let them. It also means it's important to make intelligent choices when selecting your reading material.

Finding good books presents something of a challenge, but today there's more information (and more books) available to potential readers than ever before. Take a little time to search book reviews and find book lists online. Browse reading groups in genres of interest to you at virtual book sharing sites like http://goodreads.com, http://shelfari.com and Librarything.com. Such sites offer book clubs and reading groups, or look for these elsewhere online. You'll find reading lists and discussion forums at online bookstores like Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com .

If in-person encounters are more your style, libraries offer reading groups where you can discuss books face-to-face. Ask brick-and-mortar bookstore employees for advice. Librarians often maintain reading lists for their patrons, both in print and online. Once you get started reading novel books, you'll wonder how you ever went without them.

Squidoo didn’t used to be so addictive. I’d read a few excerpts of friends’ books there, wandered round the odd page, decided I liked blogger better, then made myself a web site. A little while later I was clicking that dreaded “publish” button on Lulu and they brought up a “market your book” link. It seemed like a good idea to follow it, my marketing skills being singularly negligable. Then suddenly, without knowing how, I was creating my first Squidoo “lens.” (From Sheila Deeth Blog.)