Not all Facebook apps are dedicated to Farmville-style social games. Goodreads has the most popular book related app on Facebook, counting more than 150,700 monthly active users.

To celebrate 3,000 new friends on our GalleyCat Facebook page, we’ve compiled a list of the top 20 book-focused apps on Facebook–we’ve ranked them in order of monthly active users. Be sure to check out our Publishing App Expo later this year as well.

Below, you can check out the complete list. These online tools will help you pick books, find book clubs, take quizzes, and swap books. What’s your favorite book related app on Facebook?

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After dozens of challenges this year at libraries around the country, And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson was the most challenged library book last year according to the American Library Association (ALA).

To support the books on the top ten most frequently challenged book list, we’ve linked to free samples of all the books on the list. Follow the links below to explore these controversial books yourself.

ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom director Barbara Jones had this comment: “While we firmly support the right of every reader to choose or reject a book for themselves or their families, those objecting to a particular book should not be given the power to restrict other readers’ right to access and read that book … As members of a pluralistic and complex society, we must have free access to a diverse range of viewpoints on the human condition in order to foster critical thinking and understanding.  We must protect one of the most precious of our fundamental rights – the freedom to read.”

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Looking for an agent? To help aspiring writers, literary agents, and publishing professionals connect online, we are building a new directory of best literary agents on Twitter.

If you are looking for more people to follow, check out our Best Book Editors on Twitter list, our Best Book Publicity and Marketing Twitter Feeds directory, our Best eBook News on Twitter list, our Best Library People on Twitter directory, and our Women in Publishing Twitter List.

This list is not comprehensive, yet. Add your favorite agent (or yourself) to our growing directory.

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At the Socialize conference yesterday, WeeWorld COO Lauren Bigelow showed how different media groups advertised within the popular social networking site with 42 million users.

The site caters primarily to teenagers and could be a powerful tool for YA authors to find new readers. The average user spends 30-minutes inside the game per session, dressing their online avatars and decorating their virtual character’s room–15 million virtual items are downloaded every month. Below, we’ve listed a five ways YA authors  and publishers can get involved.

1. Gossip Girl created a clothing line for teenagers’ avatars, dressing them in branded clothing for the hit television and book series.

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Book editors have had a rough time in recent years–layoffs, uncertain roles, and crazy workloads. To celebrate National Novel Editing Month and help aspiring writers connect with editors, we’ve updated our directory of the Best Book Editors on Twitter (collected below).

This list is not comprehensive, yet. Add your favorite editor (or yourself) to our growing list–because the digital future needs editors and we need to stay connected.

If you are looking for more people to follow, check out our Best Literary Agents on Twitter directory, our Best Book Editors on Twitter list, our Best Book Publicity and Marketing Twitter Feeds directory, our Best eBook News on Twitter list, our Best Library People on Twitter directory, and our Women in Publishing Twitter List.

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The nominees for the 2011 James Beard Foundation Book Awards were announced this week. We’ve created a tasty literary mixtape, linking to free samples of all the nominated books in a variety of categories.

Here’s more about the awards: “On Friday, May 6, 2011, the James Beard Foundation Book, Broadcast & Journalism Awards Dinner, an exclusive
event honoring the nation’s top cookbook authors, culinary broadcast producers and hosts, and food journalists, will take place at Espace in New York City. The evening will be hosted by Ted Allen and Gail Simmons.”

If you want more books, we made similar mixtapes linking to free samples of the 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction nominees, the National Book Critics Circle Award finalists, the 2011 Edgar Awards finalists, the 2011 ALA Youth Media Awards winners, the 2011 Book Critics Circle Awards finalists, the Best Translated Books longlist, the Believer Book Awards shortlist, and the Best Books of 2010.

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Deborah Eisenberg has won the 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Below, we’ve created a literary mixtape linking to free samples of all five novels nominated for the prize.

The release has more information about the award: “The winner, who will receive $15,000, will be announced on March 15; the four finalists will receive $5,000 each.”

If you want more books, we made similar mixtapes linking to free samples of 2011 Edgar Awards finalists, the 2011 ALA Youth Media Awards winners, the 2011 Book Critics Circle Awards finalists, the Best Translated Books Longlist, the Believer Book Awards shortlist, and the Best Books of 2010.

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Tonight the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) will reveal the winners of their annual awards–we’ll be reporting live from the ceremony. Below, we’ve created a list linking to free samples of every critically acclaimed book on the list.

If you want more books, we made similar mixtapes linking to free samples of 2011 Edgar Awards finalists, the 2011 ALA Youth Media Awards winners, the 2011 Book Critics Circle Awards finalists, the Best Translated Books Longlist, the Believer Book Awards shortlist, and the Best Books of 2010.

This alphabetical list combines books from the following NBCC categories: fiction, biography, autobiography, criticism, nonfiction, and poetry.  What books do you hope will win?

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The Believer Book Award shortlist has been revealed. To help readers explore the list, we’ve created a literary mixtape linking to excerpts of all the finalists–look below for the free literary sampler.

Here’s more from the magazine: “Each year, the editors of the Believer generate a short list of the novels and story collections they thought were the strongest and most underappreciated of the year. The 2010 list appears below. In the January issue, we asked our readers to send in their nominations for the best work of fiction from 2010; their answers, along with the winner from the following short list, will appear in the May 2011 issue.”

If you want more books, we made similar mixtapes linking to free samples of 2011 Edgar Awards finalists, the 2011 ALA Youth Media Awards winners, the 2011 Book Critics Circle Awards finalists, the Best Translated Books Longlist and the Best Books of 2010.

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On the social networking site Quora, seventeen members have posted questions specifically concerning bookstores. Many of these questions remain unanswered.

As Borders will close 200 stores and booksellers struggle through the recession, these Quora questions are very important for readers around the world.  Below, we’ve linked to these burning questions–it’s pretty simple to log on and share your answers (or add more questions!).

One user asked the most depressing question of all: “Do bookstores — big or small — have any chance of survival or are they all going to die?” Can you help cheer up this bookstore lover?

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