This could be the world’s smallest book. Created in Japan the pages measure just 0.75mm and are impossible to read with the naked eye. The book entitled Shiki no Kusabana (flowers of seasons) contains the names and illustrations of Japanese flowers. It is currently on display at Toppan's Printing Museum in Tokyo who are in the process of applying to Guinness World Records to claim the official title of world’s smallest book.

McDonalds are to offer books with their Happy Meals instead of the traditional plastic toy. The move which will make them the UK’s largest book distributor is part of a partnership with Dorling Kindersley and WH Smith. Launched last week it will continue until the end of the year during which time an estimated 15 million books will be given out. Additional vouchers will also be given away to allow customers to redeem them for books at WH Smith. The titles available include 'Amazing World' series, entitled Oceans; Earth; Stars and Planets; Big Cats; Arctic and Antarctic; and Rainforest.

A copy of the Agatha Christie novel Poirot Investigates has recently sold at auction for £40,000. The novel is unusual because it still has the original dust jacket showing an illustration of the Belgian detective. The novel would have cost 37p when it was first published in 1924. Apparently first editions in their original dust jackets are a rare find as people would generally discard the duct jacket when they read the book. This copy was snapped up a collector.

It seems many parents no longer read their children traditional fairy tales because they think are too scary. According to this article one in five parents no longer read traditional tales such as those by Hans Christian Andersen or the Brothers Grimm preferring instead to read more modern books. Rumpelstiltskin and Rapunzel are avoided because the themes of the stories include kidnapping whilst Little Red Riding Hood is often considered too upsetting because the wolf eats the girls grandmother. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is avoided because the term dwarf is considered inappropriate and parents find the Gingerbread Man problematic because they are uncomfortable explaining that the gingerbread man gets eaten by a fox. Personally I don’t see a problem with any of the stories, perhaps traditional fairy tales are now less politically correct than more modern books but they are a product of the time in which they were written and ultimately they are only stories.

This article claims that the average Briton owns 80 books we have never read and that we purchase them simply to look more intelligent. The research carried out by Lindeman’s wine found that 70% of the books in the average bookcase remain unread and that many are there simply for display purposes. 57% of people make sure that the books  they have on display are literary classics even if they have never read them. 47% of people, however, prefer reading trashy novels that they would not put on display. I wonder who was surveyed in this research. Personally my bookshelves have a mixture of classics and sci. fi. Whilst I am not ashamed for any of the books to be on display, trashy or otherwise I can honestly say I have read every book at least once and many even the classics have been read on multiple occasions.

That’s according to this survey recently carried out by Amazon. The survey shows the top 20 most prolific book buying towns, most of which are in southern England. The retailer put together all the book buying data for the last eight months to find the best read town in the UK on a per capita basis. Huntington in Cambridge came first, followed by Cambridge and Sevenoaks coming in at a respectable third place. I have a feeling my book buying habit could be responsible for a fair few of those sales.

According to this article you will soon be able to read ebooks that come with sounds. The idea comes from an electronic book firm which hopes to attract younger readers by offering them a more interactive experience. The books called Booktrack will be available initially to iPad users but will later be available for other tablets. One example of the added sounds is the clinking of china cups in the garden in Pride and Prejudice. Looking at the comments on the article the idea gets very mixed responses with some people loving the idea and other people hating it. Personally I don’t think I would use them but I can see how they might be good for children.

According to this article scientists have applied for permission to dig up Shakespeare in order to find out how he died. The team of palaeontologists have made a formal application to the Church of England to excavate Shakespeare’s tomb in his local parish in Stratford upon Avon. It is hoped that if they are able to go ahead with the excavation they will be able to recreate a three dimensional reconstruction of the writer finding out what sort of life he led, any illnesses he might have had and how he died.

The British Library has recently handed over 250,000 books to Google for scanning into the Google Books project. The material which includes books, pamphlets and magazines from 1700 to 1870 are in several European languages. All of the works are now out of copyright and will be made available both on Google and through the British Library. Google will finance the cost of the items which will be free for users to access although Google will be free to place advertising alongside the content. It will be interesting to see exactly what is made available.

That’s the claim made by new research from the National Literacy Trust. The survey of 18,141 young people aged between 11 and 13 found that four in every ten boys did not own any books compared to three in every ten girls. According to research children who do not own books are less likely to do well at schools and less likely to have positive experiences of reading. I loved books as a child and could never have enough material to read. I blame this for my ever growing library but it probably did help me a great deal at school, as I would read anything I could my hands on, no matter how boring. I wonder whether something this simple is behind slipping standards in today’s schools.

That’s according to this article which suggests sales of digital books are becoming more popular than the printed alternative. Amazon is now selling 105 Kindle e-books for every 10 print books on their US website. It has sold three times the amount of Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did in the same period last year. It’s interesting to see how quickly the e-book has become popular. Personally I do buy them to read on my iPhone but I also in some cases prefer the printed alternative. I don’t think for me the e-book is ever really going to replace a printed book but for now I am happy to use both.

At a time when it is generally assumed that newspaper readership is declining this article makes an interesting read. It suggests that 12,681,472 people still buy a newspaper every day. The figures come from ABC figures and show that the 10 London based national titles sell an average of 9,540,993 a day. The 68 English regional dailies (mornings and evenings) together sell 2,085,116. In addition the non paid for dailies sell 1.344,959 (Metro) 700,000 (Evening Standard)  and 113,321 (City AM) making newspaper readership nearer the 15m mark. Personally I don’t buy a printed newspaper anymore but I do still read those that are still freely available online.

This is interesting, it’s a video looking inside what is thought to be the world’s most expensive book. The book is John James Audubon's Birds of America. Apparently it caused something of a sensation when it was published in the 19th Century. It has been valued at between £4m and £6m and is being sold as part of the collection from the estate of the 2nd Baron Hesketh. Whilst quite impressive what is interesting is that the illustrations would have been completed by people who had never actually seen a live example of the birds in question, hence why they lack background detail and in some case they were dismissed an inaccurate.

According to this article performing Shakespeare plays to cows can help them to produce more milk. Researchers have found that Shakespeare’s plays help to relax a dairy herd and boost milk production by as much as 4%. Cows also produce more like when they are played slow music as this has the similar effect of alleviating stress. In an experiment actors from a theatre group entertained cows at the Pleasant Farm near Maidstone. They found that the plays helped to relax the cows although they stick to light hearted comedies rather than tragedies which could have the opposite effect.

A first edition of Emma by Jane Austen has recently sold for £325,000. The novel which was signed by the author was a copy which Jane Austen presented to her friend Anne Sharp who inspired the character of Mrs Weston in the novel. The book was last sold in 2008 for £180,000. It has now been sold to a British collector.

This is one of the country’s smallest libraries. The phone box was brought from BT for £1 under a National scheme that allows communities to adopt a phone box. Villages in the local area of Westbury-sub-Mendip can use the library, selecting books, DVDs and CDs. They simply have to leave a book they have read and take one that they would like to read. The idea was thought up by a resident when the village lost both its phone box and its mobile library in quick succession.

This is an interesting idea its a machine that can  print any book out for you in minutes. It has been launched by Blackwell who are hoping it will remove the need to order a hard to find or out of print book. The idea is that you will be able to browse a catalogue of available books. Select the one you want and choose print book. The machine which can print around 105 pages minute will then print and bind your chose book. The books are likely to cost about the same you would expect to pay for a regular book. It will also be possible for authors to take in a CD of their work and have a professionally printed book produced in just minutes. There are currently 400,000 books available but it is hoped that one million will be available by the summer. I  remember being at university and having to wait for copies of a book to become available or searching old bookshops in the hope to find an obscure out of print title. If this machine works as it says, then it could put an end to this, although knowing my luck the book I wanted wouldn’t be available.

An illustrated guide to shopping trolleys has won the booker international prize for oddest title of the year. Unfortunately the guide currently only covers trolleys in North America, so won’t be much help to those keen trolley spotters out there. Perhaps someone will release a UK version soon.