For a parent there is only one thing more precious than their child: seeing that child fast asleep.

While the summer holiday season is still going strong, there's nothing better than whiling away the hours with a good travel book. Linda Herrick reviews a selection of the latest.

Girl power is taking on a whole new meaning in the reading world, with more and more books featuring brave young heroines as key characters.

The head of the Film and Literature Board of Review has broken ranks with his board to express strong reservations about an award-winning children's book.

Man Booker prizewinning author Eleanor Catton has catapulted a little-known South Auckland tertiary writing course to international attention.

When the two library assistants reflect on the past year they both note an increase in the lending of erotic paperbacks.

They were the men who played for their country before dying for it.

For generations, they were the books that defined childhood .But Asterix cartoons and the works of Roald Dahl and even J.K. Rowling appear to have fallen out of favour with younger readers.

We take a look back at the top rating books stories over the year and share links in case you missed it.

Don Brash has just finished writing a book evaluating his successes and failures.

Sports books are a great Christmas buy. Andrew Alderson and Dylan Cleaver, two great devourers of the genre, offer 11 good reads (and one not so good) for this year.

Auckland Libraries has added thousands of new, free electronic texts to its collection.

Alex Robertson reviews two Lonely Planet titles aimed at the younger members of the family.

Books editor Linda Herrick and her team of reviewers reveal their top reads for all ages and tastes.

A novel approach to reading has kids blogging and commenting online about what should happen next in books - and authors follow the instructions.

British writer Tom Cox has attracted an avid following through his blogs and books about living in the Norfolk countryside with a gang of cats. He talks to Linda Herrick