For your weekend reading pleasure, here are our top stories of the week.

They included a bookstore struggling to find homes for a half million books, the Nobel Prize candidates and a word that finally describes a book lover’s unique problem (embedded above).

1. Tsundoku: Illustrated Definition of a Book Lover’s Problem

2. Once Told Tales Struggles with 500,000 Books

3. Most Searched for Books & Authors on Google

4. Nobel Prize in Literature Candidates Chosen

5. Amazon To Allow Writers To Sell Fan Fiction

6. This Is a Bookshop Sign Goes Viral

7. Free Sites To Promote Your Book

8. How a Poem Spread to 1,500 Baseball Fields

9. Amazing Treehouse Reading Nook

10. Successful query letters for literary agents

As you celebrate Memorial Day this weekend, take some time to remember all our soldiers stationed overseas.

If you want to help these men and women far away from home, we’ve collected five different ways you can share books with our troops. For instance, E-Books for Troops will help you send an eReader to our troops overseas. Army Sgt. Andre Corbin explained at the site:

When soldiers deploy, they have a mandatory packing list of equipment/clothing which must be fitted into a rucksack and a duffel bag – and it takes good packing to get everything required stowed. Any personal items must fit into a backpack, that is basically a carry-on bag – not a lot of room. When you only have about 1.5 cubic feet of space to pack personal items to last a year (or at least until care packages start arriving), you have to be very judicious in what you decide to bring … For me, a voracious reader who is addicted to the written word and regularly devours several novels/books a week, having the room for only a few books – even paperbacks tightly packed – could be a very frustrating dilemma.

Read more

Last night, Judy Blume and her son Lawrence Blume appeared in New York City at a special promotional event for the film Tiger Eyes. Attendees watched the film and joined a Q&A session with both Blumes.

One audience member asked Judy how she dealt with the controversy and library challenges that followed her work.

Judy replied with some important writing advice: “You cannot write with a censor on your shoulder … I was a fearful kid and for some crazy reason, a pretty fearless writer.”

Read more

Seattle’s Once Sold Tales is currently offering $10, $12, $18 and $20 book grab bags for readers.

As we wrote earlier this week, the owner is struggling to find homes for 500,000 books before her warehouse closes at the end of the month.  If you live near Seattle, follow this Google maps link to visit the warehouses yourself. Explore all the grab bag options at this link:

Paypal is the way to pay. All payments to be made to sales@oncesoldtales.com. Subject should be your products and the optional message is not optional. Make certain to share your category selections, but note: while Once Sold Tales will try their hardest to get you what you want, only Category 0 can be guaranteed. We will send it off to you immediately and email you as soon as it’s on its way! And, Voila’! It’s like Christmas! — feeling excited at Once Sold Tales Bookstore Outlet.

If you want to make a personalized audiobook for the kid in your life, StorySticker can help you with the transition.

Created by stkr.it, the tool will be unveiled at BEA next week. AppNewser has all the details:

StorySticker lets you do create audio recordings of yourself reading their favorite book so that they can listen to your voice at bedtime. The StorySticker audio book works through the combination of an app and a unique coded sticker that attaches to the inside of any children’s book. You can buy the stickers at a book retailer and paste it into your child’s book. Then you can download the free app and follow the prompts to record your reading. The recording is linked with the sticker and your child can hear your recording by scanning the StorySticker code or by selecting the book within the app.

Looking for some literary Memorial Day viewing? Try Black Books, a classic British sitcom about a dysfunctional bookstore.

You can watch it for free on Hulu or Netflix streaming. We’ve embedded the trailer below–any fans in the audience? BBC America has more about the show:

In this TV show, Bernard Black (Dylan Moran) owns a bookstore, but he’s more keen on hanging out with his friends than helping customers, resigning to using a bullhorn to announce to shoppers that the store is closed. His gal pal Fran Katzenjammer (Tamsin Greig) has a shop next door, making it even more tempting to close up early. His handy dandy assistant (Bill Bailey) isn’t much help either.

Read more

Here are some handpicked titles from our Coming Attractions page. Want to include your book? Just read our Share Your New Book with GalleyCat Readers post for all the details.

The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas: “Mair Ellis clears out her dead father’s house and finds an exquisite shawl–a kaleidoscope of silvery blues and greens. Wrapped in the folds of this delicate object is a lock of a child’s curly hair. With nothing else to go on, Mair decides to trace her roots back to Kashmir…” (January 2013)

Read more

Pop Chart Lab has created The Cocktail Chart of Film & Literature, collecting the most literary cocktails for your summer mixology. Check it out:

A catalog of 49 drinks culled from great works of film and literature, depicting everything from Philip Marlowe’s Gin Gimlet to Fredo Corleone’s Banana Daiquiri to the simple yet effective Buttermaker Boilermaker … Each print is signed by the artists and numbered from a first printing of 500, and comes packaged in a custom Pop Chart Lab Test Tube … Using 100 lb. archival recycled stock certified by The Forest Stewardship Council, this poster is pressed on an offset lithographic press with vegetable-based inks in Flatlands, Brooklyn.

Read more

You can apply for the second annual John E. Nance Writer-in-Residence program at the Thurber House from now through June 3, 2013.

The four-week program includes a $4,000 stipend, “community outreach opportunities” and a stay in the two-bedroom apartment where writer and New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber once lived. Here’s more about the fall 2013 program:

Applications are now being accepted, and the genre for applicants is fiction. Residents will be chosen by July 15, 2013 and the residency will take place in September and October 2013. The application guidelines are as follows: Candidates must have had a book published by a traditional publisher within the last three years or have a current piece of their work under contract … Follow this link to learn more details and download the application.

Read more

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Atkinson will publish a narrative history trilogy about the American Revolution with Henry Holt and Company.

The former Washington Post staff writer won the Pulitzer Prize for An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, part of his bestselling trilogy about World War II–a 15 year writing effort. 

 The American Revolution trilogy will begin with 1775 and 1776; volume two will cover 1777 to 1779 and volume three will cover 1780 to 1781. Macmillan editor at large John Sterling acquired and will edit the books. He has edited all of Atkinson’s books.

Read more