"21 Nights," a "photographic essay" that offers "a rare glimpse into the life, lyrics, and mystique" of the maker of such hits as "1999" and "Purple Rain," will be published worldwide come fall, according to Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. The book, his first, is based on Prince's 21 sold-out concerts in as many nights at London's O2 Arena in 2007.

"Juxtaposing his duelling worlds of music and solitude, it ('21 Nights') will incorporate Prince's evocative poetry and lyrics to new songs and other selections and 124 full-colour, sumptuous, never-before-published images by celebrated photographer Randee St. Nicholas," Atria announced Monday. "21 Nights" will include a CD of after-hours jams, "Indigo Nights," unavailable from any other outlet.

Ron Paul's loyal supporters helped him set campaign fundraising records and capture more delegates during his presidential run than some of his high-profile Republican rivals. They even managed to briefly shut down Nevada's GOP convention earlier this month over a rules change controversy.

Now they've taken his latest book to the top of the Amazon.com bestseller list. The Revolution: A Manifesto, released earlier this month, is currently No. 1 on the Web site's list of top sellers, besting even Oprah's latest Book Club selection.

"Despite a media blackout, this septuagenarian physician-turned-congressman sparked a movement that has attracted a legion of young, dedicated, enthusiastic supporters . . . a phenomenon that has amazed veteran political observers and made more than one political rival envious," boasts the book's product description, adding: "Candidates across America are already running as 'Ron Paul Republicans.'"

They said they would and they did. Amazon has filed suit in New York challenging the constitutionality of the state’s newly signed measure requiring out-of-state online retailers to collect sales tax on purchases made by residents of the state. The company maintains that because it has no physical presence in the state it has no nexus requiring it to collect tax. The New York statute says that members of Amazon’s affiliates program does in fact provide nexus.

A book about the rise and stunning decline of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, co-authored by the makers of a book and documentary about the fall of Enron, is being published by Penguin Group (USA), Penguin imprint Portfolio announced Wednesday. Peter Elkind, who helped write the 2003 best-seller "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," is collaborating on the Spitzer book with filmmaker Alex Gibney. Gibney and Elkind will also work on a documentary about the law-and-order Democrat who resigned last month over allegations about his connection to a $5,500-an-hour call girl ring.

The book and film, currently untitled, are expected to come out around the same time, but no release date has been set. "We know Peter to be a spectacular investigative reporter, just spectacular," Portfolio publisher and president Adrian Zackheim told The Associated Press. "This is not a quickie book. He's going to do what he does best: Come back with a very, very satisfying, in-depth and complicated story."

Starbucks is restructuring its entertainment operation with Ken Lombard leaving as head of the group and being replaced by Chris Bruzzo, chief technology officer. It was under Lombard's direction that the giant coffee chain began selling selected books, and Starbucks said it will "continue its relationship with the William Morris Agency to identify book projects that it can offer in its stores." The most recent Starbuck book selection, chosen earlier this week, was Garth Stein's The Art of Racing (Harper).

Google, the Internet's leader in search and advertising, says the process it developed and is using for scanning the majority of the books in Book Search is proprietary. Employees will not discuss it except to say it is much faster than what Mitchel is doing and it's not destructive. "It took us quite a while to develop it so we do keep that confidential," said a library manager for Book Search, Ben Bunnell, who declined even to say where Google does the scanning.

Many libraries began digitizing books a decade ago to preserve them. Funding from Google allows the 28 libraries it's working with to cut their digitizing costs because they don't have to pay for scanning the books Google wants to include in Book Search.

Through Book Search, users can track down a book on any topic they're interested in and read a small portion. If the book's not protected by copyright, users can download the whole thing. If it is, or if they just want to read an original, they can use Book Search to find copies to buy or borrow. More than 1 million rare or fragile books have been digitized through the Google-Michigan partnership since it began in 2004, with an estimated 6 million to go.

"There's going to be a lot of untold stories and untold anecdotes," said Will Weisser, Sentinel's associate publisher. "But the other part is the governor's vision for the future of American politics and society and what should we be working towards? How does the (Republican) party become more unified?"

*****

The publishing company wouldn't say how much Huckabee will be paid. Weisser acknowledged that they've agreed to the book at a time when Huckabee's political future is uncertain. The former governor recently formed a political action committee to raise money for McCain and other Republicans, and has also been mentioned as a potential running mate for the Arizona senator.

"We kind of had to think about that because obviously it's possible he could be the running mate," Weisser said. "It could certainly be hard to do a traditional book promotion if he's the vice president-elect. But some people here have pointed out that that's a nice problem to have."

Disney said the book will focus particularly on the guidance of Cyrus' mother, Leticia. "I am so excited to let fans in on how important my relationship with my family is to me," the 15-year-old singer-actress said in a statement. "I hope to motivate mothers and daughters to build lifetimes of memories together and inspire kids around the world to live their dreams."

The Disney Book Group, in a clear bit of synergy for the Walt Disney Co., has world rights to the book. Disney said Cyrus' book will feature previously unseen photos, family stories and "a look at her inner circle of loved ones." The book, the first by Cyrus, will be published under the Disney-Hyperion Books imprint.

Britons like a dose of music from the rock band Coldplay to help them fall asleep, a survey from hotel chain Travelodge found on Monday. The band, whose frontman Chris Martin says he avoids caffeine and alcohol and is known for a lifestyle that is anything but rock 'n' roll, topped a poll of music choices to help listeners nod off.

Other artists chosen for their slumber-inducing qualities were James Blunt, Snow Patrol, Take That and Norah Jones. But those who prefer to be tucked in with a book at night judged celebrity autobiographies as the most effective sleep aid, with the life stories of glamour model Jordan, soccer star David Beckham and Sharon Osbourne ranking at the top.

"If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs" has won the Diagram Prize for the oddest title of the year, The Bookseller magazine announced Friday. Big Boom, the apparently pseudonymous author, calls it a "self-help book, written by a man for the benefit of women."

It's a book, he writes, that is "raw, honest and about you," distilling "the sweat off my back, the wrinkles in my forehead from anger and thinking all the time."

The title triumphed in a public vote over runner-up "I Was Tortured by the Pygmy Love Queen" and the third-place finisher, "Cheese Problems Solved." The deputy editor of The Bookseller Joel Rickett says the title of the book is so effective that "you don't even need to read the book itself."

At least since Dante's Paolo and Francesca fell in love over tales of Lancelot, literary taste has been a good shorthand for gauging compatibility. These days, thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, listing your favorite books and authors is a crucial, if risky, part of self-branding. When it comes to online dating, even casual references can turn into deal breakers. Sussing out a date's taste in books is "actually a pretty good way -- as a sort of first pass -- of getting a sense of someone," said Anna Fels, a Manhattan psychiatrist and the author of Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women's Changing Lives. "It's a bit of a Rorschach test." To Fels (who happens to be married to the literary publisher and writer James Atlas), reading habits can be a rough indicator of other qualities. "It tells something about ... their level of intellectual curiosity, what their style is," Fels said. "It speaks to class, educational level."

Naming a favorite book or author can be fraught. Go too low, and you risk looking dumb. Go too high, and you risk looking like a bore -- or a phony. "Manhattan dating is a highly competitive, ruthlessly selective sport," Augusten Burroughs, the author of Running With Scissors and other vivid memoirs, said. "Generally, if a guy had read a book in the last year, or ever, that was good enough." The author recalled a date with one Michael, a "robust blond from Germany." As he walked to meet him outside Dean & DeLuca, "I saw, to my horror, an artfully worn, older-than-me copy of Proust by Samuel Beckett." That, Burroughs claims, was a deal breaker. "If there existed a more hackneyed, achingly obvious method of telegraphing one's education, literary standards and general intelligence, I couldn't imagine it."

Jane Fonda's 2005 memoir My Life So Far became a best seller (it peaked at No. 11 on the list), thanks to its largely unflinching look at her headline-making life. So it stands to reason the thespian turned scribe is hard at work on an equally hefty sequel. She has been at it a year and has roughly another year left before she finishes it.

"It's called The Third Act: Entering Prime Time," says Fonda, 70. "I've been traveling the country, interviewing scientists, gerontologists, sexologists. It's forcing me to go deep into what it means to be aging." Not that Fonda has any plans to slow down. "I'm claiming this third act," she says. She's eager to act again if another juicy role comes her way. But mostly, she's focused on the printed word. "I really like writing. I really do," she says. "It's slow. I don't know why they thought I could churn it out."

Viewing modern adaptations was found to be as popular as teachers might have suspected, according to the YouGov poll. With both texts regularly figuring in secondary school English classes, it is no surprise that Baz Luhrmann's Romeo And Juliet and the BBC's Pride And Prejudice were frequently watched. Londoners were the worst culprits, with 16% admitting to using the films to sidestep the texts, the poll commissioned by academic bookseller Blackwell found.

Two-thirds of Britons were unaware that films such as Ten Things I Hate About You and Clueless were actually adaptations. But despite one-third of adults admitting they never read the classics, there are those who think modern life is imitating the traditional. Dickensian Britain has been reborn in the modern binge-drinking culture, according to 54% of those surveyed.

And 47% believe that many young people are suffering from Peter Pan syndrome, unwilling to grow up just as in JM Barrie's classic novel. There is also evidence that the "wag" culture may not be such a new phenomenon - 30% believe that trying to find a rich husband mirrors the themes of Jane Austen's novels.

Phil Jamieson, head of marketing at Blackwell, said: "Classic books are timeless. You will find contemporary themes such as love, sex, murder, mystery and high-octane drama in all the great novels, which is why they still appeal to the masses to this day through films and have parallels with our daily lives."

Although her husband Barack has not yet secured the Democratic Party presidential nomination, Ms. Obama has been approached by "over a dozen" publishers so far, according to Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a communications director for Ms. Obama.

Most of the calls have been going through Robert Barnett, the D.C. lawyer who represented Ms. Obama's husband when he was shopping The Audacity of Hope to publishers in late 2004. Mr. Barnett, who also works as Hillary Clinton's debate coach and has brokered massive multimillion-dollar book deals for her and her husband, got Mr. Obama a three-book deal from Random House. One of those is a children's book that will be published by Knopf (no word yet on when) and the other is a proper follow-up to Audacity for Crown, the contents of which will depend on what happens in the next seven months.

That's true as well for whatever book Ms. Obama might write, of course. But publishers are apparantly willing to take the risk. Tim Duggan, a high-ranking editor at HarperCollins' Harper unit who has contacted Mr. Barnett in pursuit of the prize, said a Michelle Obama book would "almost certainly have a major impact, whether her husband is the next president or not."

Either way, Ms. Obama’s answer so far has been no. "It's all been incredibly preliminary," Ms. Lelyveld said. "She says, 'Oh, thanks, that's great. It's a nice opportunity but...'" Priorities, Ms. Lelyveld explained, are currently elsewhere.

• The Accidental Vampire by Lynsay Sands (Avon), the funny, sexy story of a woman who never intended to wind up being the only vampire in a small town.
  
  
• The Alpine Traitor by Mary Daheim (Ballantine), the charming new Emma Lord mystery.
  
  
• What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins), the gripping crime novel that won the Quill Award.
  
  
• Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore by Elizabeth Lyon (Penguin).
  
  

"They knew more about me than I did," Horsley said Thursday from his London home. "They said, 'We know you're a heroin addict, we know you're a crack addict, we know you're involved in prostitution.' " Lucille Cirillo, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, confirmed Horsley had been refused entry. "We interviewed the individual extensively and the CBP officers decided he was not admissible under the visa waiver program" which entitles citizens of some countries - mostly in the European Union - to enter the country for business or leisure without applying for a visa.

Travellers can be refused entry if they admit on a customs form to being convicted of a crime or to being addicted to narcotics, Cirillo said. She declined to specify what responses Horsley listed on the form. Horsley's book - billed as an "unauthorized autobiography" - vividly recounts years of heavy drug use and frequent visits to prostitutes. He says he has been drug-free for three years. He said his only conviction stemmed from an arrest 25 years ago for possession of amphetamine sulfate, for which he was given a conditional discharge. He said he has visited the U.S. seven or eight times without incident.

"Dandy in the Underworld" was released in Britain last year to good reviews. The Independent newspaper said the book "entertains as much as it revolts, is as tender as it is shocking." Carrie Kania, of the book's U.S. publisher Harper Perennial, said the book was "a cautionary tale of a life lived vividly." "It is unfortunate that his voice, in person, is being stifled. But the book will live on," Kania said.

Horsley achieved his greatest notoriety in 2000 when he had himself crucified in the Philippines as part of an art project. His agent's website calls Horsley an "English eccentric" in the tradition of Lord Byron and Oscar Wilde. He thinks U.S. attitudes to eccentricity may have hardened since Wilde went there on a triumphant lecture tour in 1882, famously telling customs officials he had "nothing to declare but my genius." "I was dressed flamboyantly - top hat, long velvet coat, gloves," Horsley said. "My one concession to American sensibilities was to remove my nail polish. I thought that would get me through."

Whenever Tori was on TV, I got a flood of phone calls. I wanted more pre-op drugs. My daughter's book had just come out, and I had been barraged with phone calls, emails, letters and strangers in restaurants reporting what she was saying. Now I was imagining that even the hospital medical staff was talking about the book.

"Hi, Candy," my surgeon said. "Just watched Tori. She said you and she have a good and non-confrontational relationship." "Where's the anesthesiologist?" I asked. "Something is wrong with the anesthetic. It's not working." I thought I heard someone say something about why Tori thought she could get an inheritance when her mother was still alive. "Kids don't get inheritances until both parents pass, and the mother looks quite healthy," one of the operating room experts declared to another. More drugs. More drugs.

I saw lights, heard muffled voices, a nurse came over, and someone said the surgery was over. I fell back asleep and was moved to my room. "Mrs. Spelling, look. Isn't that your daughter on television?" a disembodied voice asked. Sure enough. I opened my eyes, and there was Tori on another talk show.

I am hardly alone in poring over "What's Your Poo Telling You?" Not only does poo have a lot to tell you, but lately scores of Americans seem anxious to listen. Last spring, Chronicle Books printed 20,000 copies of the little brown book, mostly to be sold as a novelty in Urban Outfitters. Today it has sold more than 225,000 in big-box bookstores nationwide. Apparently its success is proof that at long last poo has come out of the water closet.

Indeed, what the book's coauthors, Josh Richman and Anish Sheth, M.D., say was once regarded as "malodorous waste" can now be openly regarded for what it is: a miracle of creation, a crystal ball of intestinal health, a feng shui of the derriére. "Like a snowflake, each poo has a wondrous uniqueness," they write. They deconstruct specimens such as the "log jam," "a cruel reminder of your inability to perform," and "hanging chads," "stubborn pieces of turd that cling."

And for those who aspire to leave behind a shameful history of faulty stools? "The ideal poo is a pillowy soft, singular bolus of stool that exits the body with minimal effort," says Sheth. And that paragon of poo is achieved by consuming plenty of fruits, vegetables and fiber superstars: beans, peas, seeds and nuts.

The book has topped the best-seller list on Amazon.com virtually from the moment Winfrey's choice was revealed, and it is the fastest-selling pick ever at Barnes & Noble Inc., according to a statement issued Thursday by Winfrey. It's also a record shipment in a four-week span for any book by Penguin Group (USA), which has published such million sellers as Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" and Ken Follett's Winfrey-endorsed "The Pillars of the Earth."

Brian Tart, president and publisher of the Penguin imprint Dutton, told The Associated Press that a key factor was the upcoming Web seminars featuring Winfrey and Tolle, to be held for 10 consecutive Mondays starting March 3.

"Oprah herself has committed 10 weeks to talking to the author, and people from all over the world will be able to participate," said Tart, who added that more than 500,000 people, from more than 100 countries, have registered for the seminar.

Dutton Books, an imprint of The Penguin Group, announced Wednesday that it would be publishing the best-selling rapper's The Way I Am this fall. "It will be illustrated with never-before-seen photographs of Eminem's home and life along with original drawings," Dutton said in a statement.

The rapper's spokesman, Dennis Dennehy, said the memoir "is still in the process of being written and edited." The book was described as an intimate look inside the life of Eminem, who has sold tens of millions of records since he made his provocative debut in 1999. "Offering a window on the star's private thoughts on everything from his music and the trials of fame to his love for his daughter, Hailie, this title is every bit as raw and uncensored as the man himself," Dutton said.

Daily News columnist Bill Madden, who has covered the team's ruler for his entire 35-year reign, has just inked a major league deal with HarperCollins to do the definitive portrait.

"From Billy and Reggie to Joe and Derek, Madden has seen it all, " says HarperCollins executive editor David Hirshey, who began his career as a sportswriter for the Daily News. "This will be a book filled with Bronx Bombshells."

Fleet Street show business journalist Tim Ewbank and TV critic Stafford Hildred's Julie Christie (£17.99, h/b), originally scheduled as a summer release, has been pushed forward to early April.

The book tracks Christie from her troubled Sussex childhood until the present. It focuses on her sixties and seventies heyday, when she appeared in iconic films such as "Billy Liar" and "Dr Zhivago", won an Oscar for "Darling" and dated a number of Hollywood leading men, including Warren Beatty. In recent years she has opted for a more quiet life in Wales, only occasionally being lured back to acting.

Jim Greenhough, UK sales & marketing director at Andre Deutsch, said: "We are delighted to be publishing this biography on such a well-loved screen icon."

His roots in Mexico. He traces the migration of the Gonzalez and De La Hoya families from Tecate and Durango to the barrio of East L.A. and fondly remembers the long, lazy days he spent on periodic trips back to the old country, running barefoot in the fields and bonding with the elders.

Winning the Olympic gold medal for his deceased mother. He opens up about the heart-wrenching experience of watching her die from breast cancer, his vow to win the gold for her, his struggles to do so and the day he brought that gold to her grave.

Memorable fights. He puts the reader in the ring for his famous matches, from Julio Cesar Chavez to Felix Trinidad to Floyd Mayweather, and provides juicy, behind-the-scenes anecdotes about other matches, including the girls he snuck into his room.

Money, money, money. He shows the difficulties of being the Golden Boy, a teen-ager suddenly worth millions, trying to separate the good guys from the shysters, getting ripped off by a business advisor and finally finding financial security and establishing a burgeoning business empire under the guidance of former Swiss banker Richard Schaefer.

The wild life. He details his gambling habits, his interaction with celebrities like Paris Hilton and the night he broke down crying in the midst of a party, realizing how far he had drifted from the family life he so desperately wanted.

Family. He discusses his kids, both in and out of wedlock, his womanizing, his therapy sessions and the ultimate happiness he has discovered with his beloved wife Millie and their two young children.

"That's all news to me," former Georgia coach Vince Dooley said in Friday editions of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "All I know is whatever personality he had when he had the football was the one I liked." "Breaking Free" will chronicle Walker's life with multiple personality disorder, according to Shida Carr, a publicist at Simon & Schuster. Carr said the book will be published in August, but gave no other details and declined to provide excerpts.

In three seasons at Georgia, Walker led the Bulldogs to a 33-3-1 record, three straight Southeastern Conference championships and the 1980 national title. He won the Heisman as a junior, then left school a year early to sign with the now-defunct U.S. Football League. Walker played for the Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He has lived in Dallas since his playing career ended.

A former Georgia teammate also was caught off guard by Walker's revelation. "I'm probably one of his closest friends and that's news to me," said Frank Ros, who was captain of Georgia's 1980 national championship team. "I knew he was working on a book but I just thought it was about football. He does 100 things at once and always has projects going on, but that blows me away."

"We sincerely thank each and every one of you for your patronage and support," Karibu CEO Simba Sana wrote in an e-mail to customers. "We are optimistic that our mission to empower and educate through a comprehensive selection of books by and about people of African descent will continue to resonate within the communities we proudly served." Karibu has five stores, one of which has already closed. All will be shut down by Feb. 10.

Like other specialty retailers, including gay and feminist bookstores, black bookstores have suffered in the past 10 years, partly because of the rise of superstore chains and Internet sales, but also because of the growing popularity of black authors. With superstores and online retailers now offering large selections of black books, at lower prices, black stores have had a hard time competing and many have closed.

Until recently, Karibu had been regarded as one of the few still thriving. "I was shocked to hear the news," said Zane, the best-selling author who lives in suburban Maryland. Zane, known for such erotic novels as "Afterburn" and "Addicted," said that Karibu had stocked her books when no one else would and had been the first store where she appeared for a signing. She had made it a tradition to begin each of her author tours with a signing at one of the Karibu stores.

"I had been talking to them about my next book and knew there was something wrong because they couldn't schedule me," she told the AP. "Karibu was such an important store for me and authors looking for a chance to break through."

Friedman, whose books include the million-selling The World is Flat, will be promoting his new work, Green is the New Red, White and Blue, an environmentally themed work coming out in August.

BookExpo event director Lance Fensterman said Wednesday he was "especially pleased and proud to have been able to secure him for this book, and for this keynote event. Thomas Friedman's message not only dovetails nicely with our own programming, but it promises to be a definitive 'call to arms' for how we manage our environment in the future."

Between working at the morgue and befriending Italian men, Lindsay Lohan has reportedly found time to begin penning her memoirs, which is part Little Girl Lost by Drew Barrymore and part inside look at being an "it" girl.

OK! Magazine reports that she’s sold on making the book happen, but money woes might be her motivation.

The mag says that Lohan, who's widely reported to be cash poor after spending months at rehab, actually had to borrow $10,000 from pal Steve-O. Lohan's rep denies this, but pals close to the Razzie-nominated starlet say Lohan is starting to worry. "She regrets all the cash she threw around the last couple years," one friend told me. "She needs everything to fall into place and get her back on track, and fast."

Jennifer Bergstrom, publisher of Simon Spotlight, said Bret Saxon, Canseco's book agent, called her last Tuesday after Berkley decided not to go forward. Bergstrom asked to see the manuscript exclusively, and within 48 hours of reading it, Bergstrom had signed a deal. Asked whether the book would be controversial, she said, "Absolutely." She added that the problems with the earlier deal that fell through "surprised me a little bit, but it didn't scare us."

*****

The new collaborator is Pablo F. Fenjves, a screenwriter and the ghostwriter of If I Did It, O. J. Simpson's hypothesized confession to the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, and Witness: For the Prosecution of Scott Peterson, by Amber Frey, who was having an affair with Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his wife, Laci Peterson. Fenjves wrote Canseco's book in less than three weeks.

Fenjves said he met with Canseco several times and that it was not that difficult cranking out the book. "I was surprised by the level of detail in his head," Fenjves said. "He knew what he wanted to say."

"I am right about the dates. This is not something one gets wrong," he said in a letter to the editor of The Australian released through his publisher yesterday. Beah's publisher, Sarah Crichton, also stood by the accuracy of his book, A Long Way Gone, in which he says he hid from brutal rebels for nine to 10 months and then spent more than two years as a child soldier who was fed drugs and trained to kill.

"I have met many people who knew Mr Beah in Sierra Leone, and who have corroborated his story," Ms Crichton said in her own letter. "When Mr Beah says, as he adamantly does, that the dates in his book are correct, we have absolutely every reason to believe that this is the case." Contacted later by telephone in New York, Ms Crichton said she could not discuss the issue until after the Martin Luther King long weekend in the US, and that Beah was unavailable because he was travelling in Europe.

*****

Some 650,000 copies of his book are in print and Beah, who lives in New York, has become the world's most prominent spokesman for child soldiers. The Australian investigated the dates and confirmed the discrepancy while at the same time disproving claims by a man in Beah's home village of Mogbwemo that he was Beah's father. Beah's parents and two brothers were killed in the war.

*****

Creative writing professor Dan Chaon, who helped Beah produce the book, told The Australian: "If it turns out there are factual errors, I wouldn't necessarily be all that concerned about it."

*****

In his book, Beah says his home town, the mine where his father worked and his mother's town were all attacked in January 1993. He and a group of friends were then waiting in Mattru Jong for news when a Catholic priest was ordered by the rebels to deliver a message telling people inthe town to co-operate with the rebels. Many people fled immediately; two weeks later, the rebels attacked from a surprise inland route, leaving only one unanticipated escape route on a footpath through a nearby swamp. That is exactly what happened in 1995, according to the adult witnesses, internal records at the mine and numerous published sources.

HarperCollins US has swooped on the US rights to Sir Roger Moore's memoirs, paying almost £1m dollars for My Word is My Bond. Negotiations over a UK deal are still ongoing, with agency Pollinger hoping to tie up a deal by the end of the week.

The book was first shown to publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair, when agent Lesley Pollinger said she was hoping for £1m for world rights. It will share Moore's recollections of playing his most famous roles -- including James Bond -- his fears of serious illness, and his work with Unicef, HarperCollins US said.

Agent Tim Bates at Pollinger said this morning that a deal was "very close to being agreed" for UK rights.

With sales for his most recent novel, "I Am Charlotte Simmons," well below those for his celebrated "The Bonfire of the Vanities," Wolfe and Farrar, Straus couldn't agree on terms for his next book. Wolfe wanted at least $5 million, more than Farrar was willing to risk.

"We have an old-fashioned model for publishing, which is to publish someone well and consistently for a long time," Farrar publisher Jonathan Galassi said. "That is a model that works well; it's when money rears its ugly head that you have a problem. And we had that with Tom."

Readers may not know, or care, whether an author sticks with Farrar, Straus or Little, Brown, but within the industry there is a long, proud history of writers who became inseparable from their publishers: John Steinbeck and Viking, William Styron and Random House, Ernest Hemingway and Scribner. Even Wolfe liked to call himself the "Cal Ripken" of the book world for his uninterrupted streak with Farrar, Straus — longer, he noted, than Steinbeck's time with Viking.

The business is far larger, more fickle and more impersonal than when Wolfe first joined Farrar, in 1965, but most of the major publishers still have a core of veteran authors who have stayed in one place: David McCullough and Mary Higgins Clark at Simon & Schuster, Maya Angelou and E.L. Doctorow at Random House, Russell Banks and Tony Hillerman at HarperCollins. Longevity can be a story of personal or professional loyalty. At Grove/Atlantic, publisher Morgan Entrekin and author P.J. O'Rourke are so close that Entrekin served as best man at O'Rourke's wedding. Studs Terkel has a decades-long bond with New Press publisher Andre Schiffrin, as does Angelou with editor Bob Loomis. Wolfe worked for years at Farrar, Straus with editor Pat Strachan, who will again handle the author at Little, Brown.

The book already has a publisher and was to be titled "Vindicated", but Yaeger decided to pass on the project over what he said was a lack of content to work with. According to the report, Yaeger said Canseco does not have the goods on Yankees star Alex Rodriguez that was hinted at in an earlier interview.

"I'm passing," Yaeger told the Daily News. "I had a chance to review the Jose Canseco (material) that he provided me. I don't think there's a book there. I don't know what they're going to do. I don't think he's got what he claims to have, certainly doesn't have what he claims to have on A-Rod. "There's no meat on the bones."

Canseco's lawyer, Robert Saunooke, told the newspaper that the book would move forward regardless. "I'm not sweating it if Don passes," Saunooke said in an interview with the Daily News. "We had some terms of the contract concerning movie rights that we had to address which pushed the manuscript date back. But we're still moving forward."

Saunooke said former Sports Illustrated writer Don Yaeger is scheduled to collaborate on the project with Canseco. Reached by phone yesterday, Yaeger said he had already seen portions of Canseco's manuscript. "Jose already has a lot of stuff put together," said Yaeger, who recently collaborated with former Duke men's lacrosse coach Mike Pressler on "It's Not About the Truth," an account of the lacrosse team rape-charge scandal at Duke in 2006.

"The book is basically going to be - I don't want to say an attack - but it will be a clarification of why certain names should have been mentioned (in the Mitchell Report) that were not mentioned," Saunooke said of the new book. "We had hoped that the Mitchell Report would have been more revealing. It basically ended up being nothing more than (Mitchell saying), 'I talked to a lot of people, some people wouldn't talk to me and it's up to the commissioner.'" The last time Canseco switched hats from slugger to author, the baseball world was turned upside down. "Juiced" exposed numerous All-Stars and prominent players as having used steroids. The News was the first to report Canseco's allegations in February 2005, just before the book's release, including how Canseco personally injected stars such as Mark McGwire (the other half of the Bash Brothers), Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez and Ivan (Pudge) Rodriguez.

As for the upcoming "Vindicated," Saunooke would not dish what names his client plans to expose, but Canseco may have tipped his hand earlier this month when he was in New York City to pitch his book. Canseco was in the city the day the Mitchell Report was released (Dec. 13), but was denied entry to the press conference at the Grand Hyatt. Later that day, Canseco spoke on several broadcast outlets and said that he was shocked three-time MVP Alex Rodriguez was not among the players identified by Mitchell as users of performance enhancers. "All I can say is the Mitchell Report is incomplete," Canseco said on the Fox Business Network. "I could not believe that (Rodriguez's) name was not in the report." On the Fox News Channel the next morning, Canseco said, "Alex Rodriguez is not who he appears to be. And we'll just leave it at that."

The survey focused on 69 U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or above. Jack Miller of Central Connecticut State University chose six key indicators to rank literacy. These included newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources. Overall, the top 10 most literate (and wired) cities included:

1—Minneapolis, Minn.
2—Seattle, Wash.
3—St. Paul, Minn.
4—Denver, Colo.
5—Washington, D.C.
6—St. Louis, Mo.
7—San Francisco, Calif.
8—Atlanta, Ga.
9—Pittsburgh, Pa.
10—Boston, Mass.

*****

Some cities that didn't make it to the overall top 10, however, did strut their stuff in one of the six key literacy indicators. For instance, while Newark, N.J., was the 49th most literate city overall, it shared the top spot for newspaper circulation with Washington, D.C.

Plano, Texas, ranking 51st on the overall most-literate-city list, came in second for educational attainment. The education ranking included two factors: the percentage of the city's adult population with a high school diploma or higher and those with a bachelor's degree or higher.

HarperCollins is rushing its planned book by former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated today at a rally in Pakistan. The world leader, known as "the first daughter of Pakistan," just finished the book. According to agent Andrew Wylie, who brokered the deal, the manuscript was "completed only a week ago."

Ironically, and perhaps ominously, titled Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West, the book was originally set for Spring but will now be published "as soon as possible," said editor Tim Duggan. In describing the book, Duggan said it details "[Bhutto's] vision for how to bridge the political and cultural gap between the Islamic world, which is becoming increasingly radicalized, and the West." Adding that the publisher's "thoughts and prayers are with the Bhutto family," Duggan said HarperCollins does not yet have a firm release date for the title.

GOP strategist Karl Rove has agreed to write about his years as an adviser to President Bush in a deal worth over $1.5 million with former colleague Mary Matalin's conservative imprint at Simon & Schuster, officials said Friday. Rove, the architect of Bush's 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns and one of the most influential political advisers of his time, signed the deal with Threshold Editions, the imprint's publisher and executive vice president Louise Burke said.

"All of us at Threshold are thrilled to publish the book from the man who had the president's ear for two terms," Burke said. Rove's agent, attorney Robert Barnett, said Threshold was chosen over eight other bidding publishers. Threshold didn't say how much Rove would be paid, but the bidding reached at least $1.5 million, two publishing officials familiar with the bidding told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, a standard industry practice. Rove said in a statement that the memoir would offer "a candid, careful look" at Bush's presidency and his role in it.

"It will tackle and shed light on important events and big controversies, spell out their implications for America and set the record straight," he said. Publishers earlier this year had expressed reservations after Rove announced he would write about his White House years, wondering how much he would reveal.

• Autographed copy of How to Get Somewhere in the Music Business: From Nowhere to Nothing by Mary Dawson (CQK), the must-have guidebook for every aspiring songwriter.
  
  
• Still Summer by Jacquelyn Mitchard (Warner Books), the exciting and moving story of three women and their unexpected and shocking adventure.
  
  
• Widdershins by Charles deLint (Tor), the captivating bestselling urban fantasy set in and around the mysterious town of Newford.
  
  
• Science Fiction: The Best of the Year 2007, Edited by Rich Horton (Cosmos), the collection of short stories that will thrill sf fans. A Locus Recommended Reading Selection.
  
  

Last year, Keifer Bonvillain was hit with a federal extortion charge after he allegedly tried to sell Winfrey audiotapes for $1.5 million of a high-ranking Harpo employee bad-mouthing her. But the charge didn't hold up in an Illinois court. Now Bonvillain, 37, who touts himself as a Louisiana-born "civil-rights activist," has launched a Web site in a bid to get a publisher for his exposé, titled "Ruthless."

His breathless pitch reads: "An office manager at Harpo broke his silence and his confidentiality agreement when he spoke freely about Oprah Winfrey's private life and business affairs. Keifer Bonvillain underestimated one of the world's most powerful women when he, armed with clandestinely recorded tapes, decided to write a 'tell-all' book unmasking the famed celebrity. Within days of Harpo learning about the book, two men were attempting to break into Keifer's home - presumably to get the tapes. Oprah was desperate to keep the truth from being revealed . . . The fallout was Keifer's highly publicized arrest."

Bonvillain vows to disclose that Harpo may have been involved in "blatant discrimination . . . This CEO not only knows about these practices . . . she condones them . . . Hours of taped conversations . . . reveal what they don't want the public to know about [Oprah's] private life, and a business that prides itself on its diversity."

Most spectacularly, the lawsuit alleges that Ms. Regan was the victim of a vast conspiracy, set in motion by two unnamed News Corp executives, who were worried that she would expose secrets about her now-indicted former lover Bernard Kerik-the former New York City police commissioner-that would imperil his former boss Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid. News Corp conspired to not only fire her, according to the lawsuit, but also defame her and discredit her so that any allegations she made would be immediately discounted as the ravings of a crazy person. HarperCollins and Ms. Friedman declined to comment for this story. A News Corp spokeswoman called the suit "preposterous."

According to a source close to Ms. Regan and familiar with the negotiations, she was offered a $6.5 million settlement in August but turned it down. Bertram Fields, Ms. Regan's lawyer (though he is not directly representing her in the case) told The Observer last week: "We told them their number was unacceptable. They were warned in advance that she was going to file if they didn't increase the settlement offer they'd made and they responded that they were not going to increase it by one dime. And as a result she filed."

If there's one thing Judith Regan has, it's impeccable timing. Whether it was deliberate or not-and no one's saying-having her lawsuit ready to go just as the first indictments were handed down against Mr. Kerik is a not-so-subtle stroke of genius. Just as he is getting further discredited in the public eye, here comes his former girlfriend to say that not only was he a cheat, but he also might have told her incriminating stuff about the current leading Republican presidential nominee.

*****

But looked at in another light, the lawsuit's very scope may be revealing in a different way. After all, by sticking narrowly to the breach of contract angle, Ms. Regan would likely have increased her chances of winning. Why go further, and threaten to bring down senior News Corp execs and upend the 2008 presidential campaign? In other words, does Judith Regan have a smoking gun? Or is this just her next sensational, headline-grabbing project?

Harry Potter, James Patterson and Oprah Winfrey's book club aside, Americans - particularly young Americans - appear to be reading less for fun, and as that happens, their reading test scores are declining. At the same time, performance in other academic disciplines like math and science is dipping for students whose access to books is limited, and employers are rating workers deficient in basic writing skills.

That is the message of a new report being released today by the National Endowment for the Arts, based on an analysis of data from about two dozen studies from the federal Education and Labor Departments and the Census Bureau as well as other academic, foundation and business surveys. After its 2004 report, "Reading at Risk," which found that fewer than half of Americans over 18 read novels, short stories, plays or poetry, the endowment sought to collect more comprehensive data to build a picture of the role of all reading, including nonfiction. In his preface to the new 99-page report Dana Gioia, chairman of the endowment, described the data as "simple, consistent and alarming."

Among the findings is that although reading scores among elementary school students have been improving, scores are flat among middle school students and slightly declining among high school seniors. These trends are concurrent with a falloff in daily pleasure reading among young people as they progress from elementary to high school, a drop that appears to continue once they enter college. The data also showed that students who read for fun nearly every day performed better on reading tests than those who reported reading never or hardly at all. The study also examined results from reading tests administered to adults and found a similar trend: The percentage of adults who are proficient in reading prose has fallen at the same time that the proportion of people who read regularly for pleasure has declined.

Three years ago "Reading at Risk," which was based on a study by the Census Bureau in 2002, provoked a debate among academics, publishers and others, some of whom argued that the report defined reading too narrowly by focusing on fiction, poetry and drama. Others argued that there had not been as much of a decline in reading as the report suggested. This time the endowment did not limit its analysis to so-called literary reading. It selected studies that asked questions about "reading for fun" or "time spent reading for pleasure," saying that this could refer to a range of reading materials.