Before Mr Khatami's election, the government had frowned on innocent-seeming pleasures like the theatre, western music and novel-reading, fearing that such art forms would subvert the austere Islamic order established in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution 20 years ago.

ECONOMIST: The arts in Iran

And all of us know the difference between reading a heart-wrenching classic novel to reading a 2-line summary of what the novel is about.

FORBES: Connect

Although the Richard III Society has been around since the 1920s, it was Tey's 1951 novel that brought their ideas to a more general reading public - on the Richard III Society website, they dedicate a special section to Tey's novel.

BBC: King Richard III

Martin's fantasy novel "A Dance With Dragons" finished the book, and spent an average of 20 hours reading it, a relatively fast read for a 1, 040-page novel.

WSJ: Your E-Book Is Reading You

Founded in 2007, comiXology has revolutionized the comic book and graphic novel industry by delivering a cloud-based digital comics platform that makes discovering, buying, and reading comics more fun than ever before.

ENGADGET: Marvel giving away over 700 free first issue digital comics (for real, totally seriously this time)