Peter Frank obituary
Academic and broadcaster who made Russian politics intelligible to a British audience
Children’s fiction is not great literature
Jonathan Myerson: Kent University was right – the best children's books are better written, but only adult literature confronts the range of human experience
Vatican and Bodleian libraries launch online archive of ancient religious texts
Website funding from Polonsky Foundation includes Bodleian's 1455 Gutenberg Bible and aims to put 1.5m pages online
How can we end the male domination of philosophy?
There is still an 'aristocracy of sex' in the world of philosophy, says Jonathan Wolff, where women find it hard to thrive
How the visual language of comics could have its roots in the ice age
Cartoons have a sophisticated language all their own, argues psychologist and comics obsessive Neil Cohn. He breaks it down for David Robson
London book benches: are you sitting comfortably?
New literacy scheme will recreate famous books including Wind in the Willows and 1984, in form of seating
Fifty Shades of Grey goes viral – literally
Library copies of the bestselling sadomasochistic romance were found to carry traces of herpes and cocaine
Vi Hughes obituary
Other lives: English literature tutor who created new opportunities for older people to do research
John Playfair obituary
Other lives: Professor of immunology with interests in clarinets and crime writing
In Michael Gove’s world Jane Austen, Orwell and Dickens will die out
Polly Toynbee: The core English GCSE is to be stripped of literature – leaving nothing but grammatical correctness and straitjacket language
The future of open access research and publishing – live chat
Join our panel of experts Friday 25 October from 12-2pm BST to debate peer review, pay models, quality control and corruption
How do you encourage children to read?
Open thread: Author Neil Gaiman says we shouldn't tell children what to read. Tell us your early book choices, and how you help your kids
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai – review
A year after she was shot by the Taliban, this extraordinary schoolgirl's words are a reminder of all that is best in human nature, writes Yvonne Roberts
Don’t worry, Your Majesty, we are reading more than ever before
Observer editorial: Despite the Queen's reported fears for the Kindle generation, digital platforms have made this a golden age for the written word
Super-libraries herald a new age in the life of a humble institution
The rise of super libraries is an example of the growing inequality in the provision of libraries across the country, writes Tim Vanson