book community

Children's book illustrators are posting art postcards across social media for October's KidLitArtPostcard Day, a recurring event where authors and artists share samples of their kidlit artwork to connect with publishers, agents and fellow creators. Participants are tagging their posts so art directors and editors can browse new talent. The community event typically draws hundreds of illustrators showing character designs, scenes and book dummies.

The OAPEN Foundation and the Max Planck Society have announced a partnership to build a dedicated collection of open access books funded by the Max Planck Digital Library. The initiative will gather openly available scholarly books supported by the society's funding, expanding access to research outputs beyond journal articles. The announcement, shared by the Max Planck Digital Library, is being circulated among open science and research communities interested in growing open access monograph infrastructure.

The OAPEN Foundation has announced a new partnership with the Max Planck Society to build a dedicated collection of open access books. The collection will be funded by more than 80 Max Planck Institutes and research units, making scholarly publications in fields such as physics freely available to readers worldwide. The move is being discussed as a significant step for open access publishing and digital humanities scholarship.

The 'Trim the Risk' book tour is bringing life-saving health education directly to Black men in barbershops across 17 states. The initiative uses barbershops, trusted community gathering places, to share health information and encourage preventive care. The tour has been featured by local news outlets, drawing attention to its effort to reach men who may not otherwise access medical guidance.

Jackson Cooper, an Elon University affiliated author, has released a new book in the well-known 'For Dummies' series focused on nonprofit boards. The book offers practical guidance on how nonprofit boards operate, including governance and board member responsibilities. The announcement is being circulated through Elon University's channels, drawing attention from the nonprofit and higher education communities.

Sperm Canada, a fertility advocacy group based in Hamilton, Ontario, has announced the global release of its new book, The Journey of Spero. The guide is described as a compassionate roadmap to parenthood, offering comprehensive and reassuring information for people navigating fertility challenges. The book is available as of today.

Distributed Proofreaders, the volunteer project that proofreads public domain texts for Project Gutenberg, is celebrating its 26th birthday by featuring "The Pentateuch of Printing" on its blog. The organisation describes the generously illustrated book as covering the history of Western typography and printing from ancient times to the late 19th century, inviting readers to explore the milestone.

A discussion thread on Hacker News asks users what they are currently reading, drawing hundreds of responses. Participants list books across fiction, non-fiction, and technical subjects, exchange recommendations, and debate titles. The thread has become a reference point for readers looking for new books to pick up this season.

An artist has been commissioned to create a book cover for a Naruto fanfiction, given as a birthday present to the story's author. The artist described the gift as a really sweet gesture and said it was a fun commission to work on, sharing the finished cover artwork with fellow fans and artists online.

Readers on Mastodon's book community are posting about finishing a history and politics book that touches on military affairs, the Business Plot, and Smedley Butler. The posts, tagged under book-sharing hashtags, recommend the title to others interested in political and military history.

Seventeen authors have teamed up to discount their dystopian-themed fiction, spanning young adult, adult and fantasy titles, with all books pitched at a PG-13 level. The promotion, running as a limited-time ebook sale, is aimed at readers of dystopian and science fiction genres and is being shared across reader and writer communities online.

A discussion thread is asking people what books they read aloud to their children, drawing a wave of replies with reading recommendations and anecdotes about family reading habits. Participants share titles across picture books, chapter books and classics, and discuss how reading together fits into evening routines and childhood development.

A Kansas City writer describes how books shaped her childhood and explains launching an initiative to share books with children across the Kansas City area. The piece highlights the importance of early access to reading and local efforts to get more books into homes, especially for kids who might not otherwise have them.

Emory University faculty and students are taking part in the Decatur Book Festival, presenting their work and joining panel discussions at the annual literary event. The university highlighted the participation of its academic community in the festival, which brings together authors, readers and publishers in Decatur, Georgia, and is one of the largest independent book festivals in the United States.

StoryKeeps has published its October 2026 Featured Reads, a curated list of book recommendations aimed at the reading community, with romance readers among the first to share the selections online. The announcement highlights what to read this month and invites book lovers to browse the picks and join ongoing reading discussions.

EveryLibrary, the US-based library advocacy organization, is calling on supporters to like, follow, and share its message in support of libraries, literacy, and books. The appeal promotes its wider campaign for public libraries, reading, and literature, encouraging book lovers to amplify its work across social media and grow its community of library supporters.

A joke circulating in online book communities quips that Hebden Bridge, the West Yorkshire market town known for its quirky, bohemian character, sounds a lot more fun than whatever a book described — with erotica and 'filth' hashtags attached. Readers are sharing it as light banter about racy novels, with Hebden Bridge's famously alternative reputation making it the perfect stand-in for a wilder alternative.

A new website has launched for The Box of Delights Appreciation Society, a group dedicated to John Masefield's classic children's novel and its much-loved 1984 BBC television adaptation. The site brings together material for fans of both the book and the series, which remains a seasonal favourite for many viewers. Early attention has come from book and TV enthusiasts sharing the launch within fan communities.

Comic book fans gathered in large numbers for the ninth annual IV Entertainment Convention, held in the Imperial Valley area and covered by the Calexico Chronicle. The event, now a fixture on the local calendar, draws enthusiasts of comics, pop culture and related entertainment each year, offering vendors, activities and community gatherings for attendees from across the region.

Blogger Lydia Schoch has published a Top Ten Tuesday list of picture books about pumpkins, shared with the book-loving community on Bookstodon. The roundup highlights ten pumpkin-themed children's picture books, timed for the autumn and Halloween season. It is part of the regular Top Ten Tuesday blogging prompt, where readers share themed book lists each week.

A bookseller in Edinburgh has described opening the shop in the morning, checking the stock and gathering the staff — the 'Pages Posse' — ahead of the day's trade. The post, shared with photographs of the shop, has drawn a warm response from the online book-loving community, where readers regularly swap notes on independent bookshops and the ritual of a quiet morning among the shelves.

A reader in the Spanish-speaking book community is sharing enthusiasm after finishing a Stephen King novel, posting that they had a great time with it. The message circulated with hashtags spanning books, literature and horror, drawing small but positive engagement from fellow readers in the bookstodon community.

A library in Middletown has expanded its offerings by adding books in nine languages along with its first video game collection. The move reflects a broader effort by public libraries to serve more diverse communities and attract younger patrons beyond traditional print lending, positioning the branch as a more inclusive and modern community resource.

Books to Prisoners, a volunteer group based in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, is holding a book sale to raise funds for its work sending free books to people incarcerated in prisons. The local announcement has drawn attention in the community, with supporters encouraged to buy books and back the organisation's mission.

Judy Blume and the Nusbaum family will be recognized at Miami Book Fair's fourth annual Next Page Dinner, an event supporting the fair's literary programming. The announcement highlights Blume's enduring cultural influence and the Nusbaum family's support for books and literacy. The fair, based at Miami Dade College, continues to be one of the nation's leading literary gatherings.

A group promotion of adventure-themed books by multiple authors is being shared through the BookFunnel platform, aimed at fans of science fiction and fantasy. The promotion invites readers to browse and download stories under the banner 'We're Going on an Adventure'. Little other detail about the titles or authors involved is available.

A line from Plato's Timaeus — 'Time is the moving image of eternity' — is being shared alongside photography by Andre Villeneuve within the online Bookstodon book community, tagged under philosophy and photography. Readers are engaging with the pairing of classical philosophy and landscape imagery, a quiet but popular form of reflection in reading circles.

A manga reader says they finished 8 volumes in September, slightly below their usual pace, but is satisfied overall because they also read a novel and two novellas during the month. Alongside the books, they played through Arzette and Splatoon Raiders and say they are generally happy with how their reading month went.