So get your diaries out and pencil in an important date. On 9 January London Underground will celebrate its 150th anniversary. That’s right, a century and a half since the first underground journey took place between Paddington and Farringdon on the Metropolitan Railway. A range of events are planned for 2013, starting on 13 January with a recreation of that first journey.

But if trainspotting isn’t your thing, consider marking the occasion another way. In fact, what better to way to celebrate the Tube’s big birthday than by burying your head in a book about the Underground?

Penguin is the official publisher for the event and will mark it with the release of several tie-in titles. There are short paperbacks themed on individual lines, with the authors offering a personal reflection or a piece of inspired fiction; a definitive history of the Tube; a new collection of Poems on The Underground and a book charting the evolution of London Underground’s iconic design.

Already out is:

• Underground: How The Tube Shaped London by David Bownes and Oliver Green: From the London Transport Museum curators and archive comes an official history of the Underground, which is described as a rich work of social, design and engineering history.
• Poems on the Underground by Judith Chernaik, Gerard Benson and Cicely Herbert: A new collection of the much-loved series, including poems not previously published in other anthologies.
• London Underground by Design by Mark Ovenden: Since the 1920s, the Underground’s design – its maps, carriages, posters – has been a part of Britain’s culture and design history. Available from 31 Jan

The specially commissioned Penguin Lines are:

• A Good Parcel of English Soil – The Metropolitan Line by Richard Mabey
• Drift-The Hammersmith and City Line byPhilippe Parreno
• What We Talk About When We Talk About The Tube -  The District Line by John Lanchester
• Heads and Straights – The Circle Line by Lucy Wadham
• A Northern Line Minute by William Leith
• Waterloo-City, City-Waterloo byLeanne Shapton
• The 32 Stops – The Central Line by Danny Dorling
• The Blue Riband –  The Piccadilly Line by Peter York
• Earthbound – The Bakerloo Line by Paul Morley
• Mind The Child – The Victoria Line by Camila Batmanghelidjh
• A History of Capitalism According to the Jubilee Lineby John O’Farrell
• Buttoned-up –  the East London Line by Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom

There are of course many other existing books on the subject. Journeys on the Tube offer fantastic people watching opportunities and so make for extremely fertile ground for fiction too. Here are a pick of the many publications already available:

• Underground, Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube by Andrew Martin. The author blends reportage, humour and personal stories in this engaging history. He attempts to untangle the Northern Line, visit every station in a day – and find out which gaps to be especially mindful of.
• Underground London by Stephen Smith. An alternative tour around London, as seen from below. Stephen Smith uncovers the secrets of the city by walking through sewers and tunnels under such places as Hampton Court, ghost tube stations, and long lost rivers like the Fleet and Tyburn.
• 253 by Geoff Ryman. This novel tells the stories of the 252 passengers and one driver on a seven-and-a-half minute journey from Embankment to Elephant and Castle. Each character has a page devoted to their stories.
• Mr Becks’ Underground Map by Ken Garland. This contains illustrated colour diagrams of the various maps issued from 1908 to 1964 and also diagrams from Harry Beck’s original sketch in 1931 until his last diagram in 1964.

What’s your favourite book about the Tube?

On Monday evenings, The London Library opens its doors to non-members, who can take a free guided tour of this important literary institution.

Set up in 1841 by Thomas Carlyle, who had grown tired of the British Library, the London Library was founded on the principle that members should be able to enjoy the riches of a national library in their homes.

The ever-expanding collection contains more than 1 million books, over 90% of which are on display and can be borrowed by its members.

We started our tour by following the wonderful smell of old books up the stairs to the stacks containing the Science and Miscellaneous books in the library.

The London Library’s collection focuses on arts and humanities and has its own unique cataloguing system. This system places quite a few books in the catch-all category of Science and Miscellaneous. Here you’ll find anything from horse-shoeing to human sacrifice sitting alongside each other on the shelves.

From up here, you can get some idea of the size of the library – looking down through the slightly unnerving metal grille floor (a Victorian air conditioning system) you can see many storeys below, all packed with books.

We also peeped into the library’s main reading rooms – offering complete silence for members to read and write in.

Next we headed down to the basement (featured as the scene of a murder in an episode of New Tricks last year). This is where the library keeps its archive of periodicals, plus every single copy of The Times newspaper. Even the toilets (also in the basement) have a story to tell, as they are designed by Turner prize-wining artist Martin Creed.

The library has had, and continues to count, many famous writers among its members, including Charles Dickens, TS Eliot, Seigfried Sassoon and Simon Callow. But the library stresses that you don’t have to be an esteemed author to join, membership is open to all.

If you love books, I thoroughly recommend taking The London Library tour. It’s free and makes for a really interesting hour, where you’ll see books of all shapes, ages and sizes; find out about the library’s history, and potentially start planning the day you can join up and write your best-seller!

The London Library tour, Mondays, 6:30pm. Places are limited so booking is recommended. Phone +44 (0) 20 7766 4704 or email visits@londonlibrary.co.uk to reserve a place

It’s World Book Day on Thursday, so our thoughts are turning to books and reading this week.

London’s got a fantastic offering of bookshops, from shiny big chain stores like Waterstone’s and Blackwell’s to quirky little independent shops , like My Back Pages and The Riverside Bookshop as well as specialist bookshops (Notting Hill’s Travel Bookshop, for example) catering for pretty much every taste, and eco-friendly second-hand bookshops such as the Oxfam Bookshops.

Don’t forget to take a look at our Top 10 Independent Bookshops for inspiration!

We want to know which is your favourite bookshop in London? Let us know in the comments below.

I’ve got a confession to make, after nearly three years in London, I’d never been to the British Library until last Friday. I picked a good night to initiate myself though, as it was Late at the Library’s Victorian Values evening.

Billed as “the ultimate in glamour, bawdiness and wit”, Victorian Values was an evening of Victorian-themed entertainment and sideshows, with a burlesque twist. The night was put on to complement the British Library’s first-ever major photographic exhibition, Points of View: Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs (open now until 7 March, free entry)

I stepped into the cavernous BL Entry Hall to the sound of host Desmond O’Connor (not that one!) who was strenuously strumming the ukulele as he sang one of his tongue-twisting tunes. I was just in time to witness Kittie Klaw’s Victorian burlesque act – as behoved the era, she didn’t strip but did give herself a rather rigorous rocking chair ride while reading a racy novel.

Other performances included Victorian-style tableaux, Mr Joe Black looking funereal and reviewing the situation Oliver-style and, perhaps my favourite of the evening, Red Sarah as a Victorian strongman, complete with stripy suit and barbell. Another huge crowd-pleaser was Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer, who does a medley of modern songs – from Beastie Boys to The Prodigy – in a thoroughly amusing, old-fashioned style that he calls “Chap-Hop”, while accompanying himself on the banjolele.

While the Oompah Brass band played between acts, I popped downstairs to check out the exhibition. It’s a collection of early photographs and films, with an interesting mix of displays (light boxes, projections, prints, etc) and a huge range of subject matter (exotic animals, x-rays, daily life and even pictures of “spirits”). Taken in conjunction with the informative descriptions about Victorian photographic equipment and techniques, it provides a fascinating insight into the birth of photography.

As well as the photography display, the BL has a permanent collection covering all manner of book-related things. I didn’t have time to explore the full breadth of what is here, but I’ll definitely be back to check out the Gutenburg Bible, Mozart manuscripts and, uh, the Philatelic Exhibition (stamps).

There’s also a programme of talks and performances on topics ranging from Jane Austen to HIV policies in Africa, to Harold Pinter to Beowulf. Check out www.bl.uk for the full list of events.

If I may quote The Simpsons: To the book depository!

1. Foyles
Famous Foyles is a sprawling department store with books on every subject. There are four floors of books to choose from and a café to contemplate your books. You’ll even spot a few well chosen second-hand books nestling between the new ones to give you a comprehensive choice.

2. Grant & Cutler
Specialising in foreign language books (in more than 150 languages), Grant & Cutler is the place to go if you’re learning a new language or missing books in your first language. Grant & Cutler stock international classics for students, the latest blockbusters from around the world and any educational language material you might ever decide you need.

3. Daunt Books
Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street is a very satisfying place to buy books. The old-fashioned wood panelling and balconies seem to saturate the books with wisdom and gravitas. Daunt have a large selection of travel books and they sensibly place guidebooks, novels and travel diaries together by country.

4. My Back Pages
My Back Pages in Balham is stuffed with second-hand books. You can lose hours in this shop, get cramp from prolonged rummaging through boxes or unexpectedly clamber over some books and discover another customer sitting on the floor dreamily building a book castle of their potential purchases. If you leave My Back Pages without armfuls of books, you’re doing it wrong.

5. RD Franks
RD Franks stocks the most attractive books in town. Specialising in books and magazines about fashion and textiles, you’ll find imported and specialist glossy mags predicting cutting edge trends. RD Franks is worth a visit if you’re a stylish reader. Frustratingly, the shop is only open during office hours and not on Saturdays, so the majority of customers are students hanging about reading the magazines.

6. The London Review Bookshop
Visiting The London Review Bookshop will make you smarter. It’s the very antithesis of the bargain book selection in your local supermarket. Bookworms will be pleased to hear that the books at the London Review Bookshop appear to be chosen for their literary, imaginative and intellectual merit. And they serve cake.

7. The Riverside Bookshop
The Riverside Bookshops is tiny, but beautiful. There’s a good selection of the latest fiction, and a little bit of everything else. Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine) recently said it was one of her favourite places in London to hang out. It’s also temptingly close to VL Towers and causes us much accidental lunchtime book buying.

8. The Persephone Bookshop
The Persephone Bookshop is a publishing house bookshop selling Persephone books. The books are exciting – re-prints of forgotten novels by female authors with vintage designs on the endpapers. So much love has gone into creating these books, it’s hard not to eulogise at great length about how comforting they are to curl up with. You’ll be back for more.

9. Quinto Bookshop
Quinto Bookshop is a traditional, second-hand bookshop on Charing Cross Road. The shop is packed with books on all subjects. Oddly, most of the fun seems to take place just outside Quinto’s front door. Bibliophiles have been known to queue up outside the shop after the monthly stock-take to get their hands on the incoming treasures, and we’ve spotted some fans of Zachary ‘Spock’ Quinto posing outside for Vulcan salute photos (and probably heading up the road for another photo session outside Koenig’s bookshop afterwards!)

10. Ripping Yarns
Remember your favourite childhood books that inspired your love of reading? Ripping Yarns specialises in collectable children’s books so you can have more adventures with the Famous Five. If you can’t remember the title or the author, you can describe the creatures and the story to the bookshop staff and they’ll probably be able to find it for you. Ripping Yarns also sell vintage annuals, children’s compendiums and comics.

Did we miss your favourite London bookshop? Tell us about it!