Rameses (Joel Edgerton) and his wife Nefertari (Golshifteh Farahani) try to save their stricken child, a victim of one of the plagues, in Exodus: Gods And Kings. Kerry Brown/Twentieth Century Fox hide caption
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Laurels: perfect for the poet laureate on your holiday list. Grafissimo/iStockphoto hide caption
It's clear from this child's reckless nighttime e-reading that someone has not kept up with their subscription to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Mari/iStock hide caption
Games of Thrones' author George R.R. Martin Kevin Winter/Getty Images hide caption
People wait in line at Macmillan Publishers to have books autographed by their authors at last year's Book Expo America in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Mark Lennihan/AP hide caption
Get your sci-fi with a side of cappuccino. e_rasmus/iStockphoto hide caption
James Patterson, together with a cadre of co-writers, consistently produces more than 10 books a year. Forbes estimates that Patterson made $90 million this year alone. Janette Pellegrini/Getty Images for Disney Publishing hide caption
In its attempt to obtain a foothold in a market long dominated by Amazon, Apple ran afoul of antitrust law. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
The second in the series, The Silkworm will soon spin its thread in pixels on TV. Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Prime Minister Tony Abbott rankled the judges of the Prime Minister's Literary Award with a last-minute announcement. Judge Les Murray later called Abbott's pick a "stupid and pretentious book." Stefan Postles/Getty Images hide caption
When it comes to picturing Elena Ferrante, readers have even less material than they do on Thomas Pynchon. They'll have to continue to settle for stock photography such as this, a shot of her native Naples, Italy. Angelafoto/iStockphoto hide caption
Lena Dunham's collection of personal essays, Not That Kind of Girl, is her first book. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images hide caption
Sitting on the steps outside her London home, Doris Lessing learns from reporters that she won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
The metaphoric shadow of Microsoft passes, less hopeful than when it came. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri won the Booker Prize for his 1991 novel The Famished Road. It remains to be seen whether that prize and this new one will share the same shelf at home. Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Toni Morrison has been busy this fall, first announcing her plans to keep her archives at Princeton and then sparring amiably with Stephen Colbert. With a book coming out in spring 2015, she appears intent on keeping up the pace. Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Not long after the publication of In Cold Blood, the book was adapted into film. Here, Truman Capote (left) stands beside Scott Wilson (center) and Robert Blake, the actors who played convicted killers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, respectively. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption
Jacqueline Woodson, pictured here at the National Book Awards ceremony last month, won the young people's literature prize for her memoir in verse, Brown Girl Dreaming. Robin Platzer/Twin Images/AP hide caption
Youths walk past a mural calling for peace in Ferguson, Mo., on a building up the street from the city's police department a day before the grand jury decision was announced. David Goldman/AP hide caption
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, seen here in 1982, speaks to reporters following the announcement of his Nobel win. Among the materials in his archive are the many drafts he prepared for his Nobel acceptance speech. Hasse Persson/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Jack Kerouac's On the Road, a draft of which is seen here, may never have taken the rambling form it did, had he not seen a letter similarly styled by his friend Neal Cassady. Bertrand Langlois/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Daniel Handler — aka Lemony Snicket — apologized Thursday for his "ill-conceived attempts at humor" during the National Book Awards ceremony Wednesday. Robin Marchant/Getty Images hide caption
In her speech Wednesday night in New York, Ursula K. Le Guin declared, "The name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom." Robin Marchant/Getty Images hide caption
In the Costa-nominated H Is For Hawk, Helen Macdonald recounts how her relationship with a goshawk like this one helped her to grapple with the loss of her father. sirius_r/iStockphoto hide caption