Book lovers, put that novel down for a sec, here's a festival that may just appeal to your love of literature.

The writer Gunter Grass once said even bad books are books and, therefore, sacred. And the good ones? Well, they are things to be read, objects to treasured and to be kept — hopefully in your own ever-growing library.

Eoin Colfer, the Irish creator of teen criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl, tells Stephen Jewell why his next episode will be his last.

Australian novelist Kathy Lette tells Stephen Jewell how she sees the comedy within the chaos of daily life with an Asperger’s child and how she was picked up by Billy Connolly.

This Wednesday marks the start of the 2012 Auckland Writers & Readers Festival. Danielle Wright talks to New Zealand authors about their books set in Auckland to help you discover your neighbourhood through literature.

This raunchy read has everyone talking, but Nicky Pellegrino is underwhelmed.

The world watched in horror as, in 2010, Haiti's main city Port au Prince collapsed under a shocking earthquake, its buildings crashing down and killing around a quarter of a million people.

Emily Perkins' sumptuous new book, The Forrests, is a novel to savour slowly: line by line, character by character, revelation by revelation.

Author A.D. Miller’s debut novel defies the traditional crime thriller genre as it explores the Russian capital’s underbelly. Stephen Jewell writes.

I have to confess a prejudice against novels where the characters are continually lighting cigarettes and lifting drinks, and where the author continually tells you they're doing so.

Nicky Pellegrino finds the intricacies of a French novel a touch far-fetched.

New Zealand writer David Hill tells Linda Herrick how a song triggered his latest picture book and how he called upon his own uncles’ memories.

Gordon McLauchlan is a journalist and writer who has recently published The Passionless People Revisited (David Bateman, $29.99).