The literature we’re dressing up as this World Book Day.

If you’ve been on social media today, you may have noticed from the avalanche of books on your feed that today is World Book Day, an event that happens every year on 7 March to promote reading. How very wholesome! Also, good news: book sales are up. In the past year alone, £1.63 billion worth of books were sold in the UK, and the popularity of printed books is higher than ever. Indeed, there have never been more books in the world than there are today. So, if you’re in need of a little literary inspiration on this most literary of days, you can find out what the MR PORTER team are reading right now, below. From neo-noir sci-fi to stories about gender-flouting mermaids, there’s truly something for everyone.

This debut novel from the Edinburgh-based writer Mr Alan Trotter is an experimental take on the noir genre told from the perspective of Box, a freelance goon doing odd jobs for the mob with his partner in crime, an unhinged psychopath known only as _____ (told you it was experimental). At a poker evening, Box meets Holcomb, a hack writer who specialises in grotesque and mind-bending science-fiction tales, many of which are recounted in full, by Box, as stories within stories. Between chapters we’re also introduced to Charles and Hector, two hitmen who throw random passengers from a moving train while calmly and eloquently discussing the nature of their violent acts. As you might have guessed, Muscle is a very strange and subversive book indeed. I’m still not quite sure what to make of it, other than that I enjoyed it. I think I did, anyway.

Out now (Faber)

If you haven’t heard of Ms Ingrid Sischy, consider this your call to action. The late, great editor and critic was Mr Andy Warhol’s successor as editor of Interview magazine, and consistently produced some of the finest criticism on art, photography and fashion of the past century. Nothing Is Lost is a collection of her best work. The essays are a genuine must-read for fashion or art nerds. They include an interview with Mr John Galliano after his unceremonious fall from grace as the creative director of Dior, as well as pieces on some of the most seminal luminaries of the century including Mr Calvin Klein, Ms Miuccia Prada, Mr Robert Mapplethorpe and Mr Jeff Koons. Ms Sischy’s writing is appealingly incisive, but has the rare quality of also being incredibly warm. She was not, I imagine, a woman you would have wanted to cross, but she is certainly someone you’d do well to read.

Out now (Knopf)

I’d love to say I’m the bulk of the way through Mr Karl Ove Knausgård’s latest opus or that I’ve formed an opinion on Ms Sally Rooney’s Normal People, but at least I have already read more books than most in 2019. Admittedly, largely illustrated thick-board books clocking in at around 30 pages, and usually the same ones on repeat. However, my three-year-old son does have quite progressive tastes when it comes to literature, and Julián Is A Mermaid is as thought-provoking as any broadsheet-endorsed tome. On a trip with his grandma, the titular hero spots a trio of mermaids on their way to an aquatic-themed carnival. Back at her home, he attempts emulating their outfits and, in the process, squanders his grandma’s makeup, her pot plants and pulls down her curtains. A lesson in parenting here – rather than slinging young Julián on the naughty mat, she gives him her pearl necklaces and takes that belle to the ball. And, if 40 pages sounds like a bit of a commitment, you can always wait until it inevitably appears on CBeebies’ Story Time.

Out now (Walker)

In this world of gnat-like attention spans and constant interruption, I’m finding myself more and more drawn towards reading short stories. Not just because, honestly, I lack the time to read for more than about an hour at once, but also because there’s so much pleasure in seeing how different writers attack this condensed format and turn it into something new. This is an apt thought to framing the new collection from Mr David Means, a New York-based writer considered among the foremost proponents of the American short story whose debut novel Hystopia was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2016. In this collection of 14 stories he returns to familiar obsessions – crime, homelessness, fatherhood, the post-industrial landscapes of Michigan, where he grew up – but with a truly virtuosic approach to form that startlingly plays with time, perspective and different narrative frames. It’s a perverse delight to follow these moving tales of sad, ruined men and their tragicomic obsessions and continually have the rug pulled out from under you by the formidable intelligence behind them.

Out 21 March (Faber)

Early avant-garde Soviet literature might sound pretentious, but Today I Wrote Nothing is anything but. Mr Daniil Kharms’ silly, absurd short stories provide an antidote to, well, just about anything. Mr Kharms writes about old ladies falling out of windows, insomniacs and mundane micro-encounters at the market. Seemingly trivial, perhaps, but Mr Kharms had to fight for his right to be daft. He faced stern criticism from Soviet authorities for his eccentricity and was arrested in 1941. To avoid execution, he feigned insanity and ended up on the psychiatric ward of Kresty prison in Saint Petersburg. Unfortunately, it didn’t get much better for Mr Kharms; he died of starvation during the siege of Leningrad in 1942. Enjoy yourself, it’s better than you think.

Out now (Overlook Press)