The New York Times

25 years of memorable literary moments

The New York Times Book Review looked back on moments that made news in the book world this century. Here’s a selection.

2007: Amazon released its first Kindle. It cost $399 and sold out in five and a half hours.

2013: E L James’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” series, which brought erotica into the mainstream, reached more than 100 million copies sold.

2022: More than 30 years after Iran’s ayatollah called for Salman Rushdie’s death over the novel “The Satanic Verses,” a knife-wielding man stabbed Rushdie at a literary event.

2024: Before he died in 2014, Gabriel García Márquez asked that his final novel, “Until August,” be destroyed. His family decided to publish it anyway.

(Read the full list, and catch up with our ranking of the best books.)