The Reading Book Post, May 12th

I'm finally done with the Japanese themed read and I'm very happy about it. I really enjoyed all of the books I had chosen. My favourites were probably Battle Royale and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Kitchen was also an emotional read, Hotel Iris was unique, Kafka on the Shore and The Woman in the Dunes both disturbing, with eerie and dark atmosphere. The next themed read will be quite different, but I'll announce it later this month, as other reviews are on the top of my list. Anyway, let's see what happened in the literary world the last week.

• The Arthur C.Clarke Award was given to Emily St. John Mandel for her novel Station Eleven, in a ceremony that took place in the Foyles bookshop flagship store on Charing Cross Road, London. In a completely different tone, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave an amazing speech at the PEN World Voices festival, in which she critiqued the "codes of silence" that rule American life.

• The Bazaar of Bad Dreams the upcoming short story collection by Stephen King finally has a cover. Earlier last week the cover was revealed on his official page. I found it quite simple, but really nice. What do you think? Do you like it?

• Archivists from the University of California discovered and authenticated a 150-years-old stash of Samuel Clemens's stories, known as Mark Twain. The stories are written with Twain's usual humorous style, although they were written in a tough period of his life. I really hope that an edition with these stories will be published!

• In the beginning of the month a rare first edition and signed copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude had disappeared from its guarded display case at Bogota's book fair, which this year was honouring the late author. Luckily the police have announced that the copy was found, but further details will follow the next days.

• Romance novels are really popular, and why not? I would lie to you if I didn't admit that I often read romance novels and I enjoy them immensely. But who in the romance novel reader? Myths and realities, about a lot of misconceptions concerning this particular genre.

• William Shakspeare invented many words that are commonly used nowadays. But can you guess which one? Take this quiz to find out. How much did you score? I only got 7/10 right!