The Longmont Daily Times-Call strolled along the Pearl Street Mall, the downtown Boulder, Colo., pedestrian mall that is populated mostly by independent retailers, including the Boulder Bookstore, now a 20,000-sq.-ft. store in several buildings. The bookstore is owned by David Bolduc, co-founder of the Boulder Independent Business Alliance, a model for other cities' and towns' local business groups. To learn more about what may or may not make the mall work, click here.

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Reporting from Kansas City, Mo., the Los Angeles Times offers a glimpse at the dynamics of a book tour by a possible presidential candidate, in this case Senator John McCain on behalf of Character Is Destiny. With all the talk of politics, the author's 2000 campaign and questions of another run, sometimes, the paper commented, "you had to remind yourself McCain is on a book tour."

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Earlier this month, Kathy LaBarge opened Trillium Books in Cathlamet, Wash., according to the Daily News of Longview, Wash. The 400-sq.-ft. store stocks mostly used books with what LaBarge called "a pretty good section of Northwest interests--books on Lewis and Clark and by local authors." In a kind of his-and-hers approach to shelving, she added that her favorite books are in one section and her husband's in another.

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Two major remainder companies that sued each other over a failed merger have settled, according to Bargain Book News. Neither American Book Co., Knoxville, Tenn., nor Book Depot/True Remainders, St. Catharines, Ont., would discuss the settlement.

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The faculty- and student-owned Bookstore at the University of Montana has bought a commercial lot on which it will build its second store, the Missoulian reported. The branch is intended to serve the growing number of students living offcampus on Missoula's south side.

"This is the perfect location because of the density of students that live out there," manager Bryan Thornton told the paper.

Nan Sorensen is joining the New England Booksellers Association as assistant executive director, effective January 9. She has been sales coordinator at Houghton Mifflin for the last five years and before that was NEBA's assistant executive director for seven years. She had earlier worked at Houghton Mifflin, David R. Godine, Publisher, the Harvard Book Store and the Harvard Coop. She replaces Nancy Fish, who held the spot for two and a half years (Shelf Awareness, December 6).

NEBA executive director Rusty Drugan said in a letter to members that Sorensen is excited about NEBA's strategic planning process and "believes she can contribute to achieving the goals that the Strategic Planning Committee will set for the association. . . . Nan's experience uniquely qualified her among the applicants to help bring about change in two important existing activities that the Committee has identified as needing it, the trade show and the catalog."

Drugan added that next year NEBA likely will hire a third person for the office.

Five categories are performing particularly well at Borders this season, according to Bill Nasshan, senior v-p of trade books: cooking; humor and games; biography and autobiography; history and politics; and literary titles.

In cooking, several celebrity titles are steaming along, including Rachael Ray's new Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats, her backlist and Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. The company is also happy with sales of its own Cooking Essential series, six basic cooking titles with washable covers that retail for $9.95 each. Last year Borders offered a Beautiful Cookbook exclusive series.

(The company's proprietary publishing program is limited to areas where there are "gaps in content," Nasshan said. Recent efforts outside cooking include some titles in the categories of crafts, home, how to, gardening and test prep. "The goal is to increase category sales, not take sales away from branded products," Nasshan added. "We're not doing it just to do it.")

In humor and games, "all things sudoku," at least 15 titles, are selling well. "This has staying power," Nasshan commented. And The Complete Calvin and Hobbes has been "a fantastic replacement" for The Complete Far Side.

In biography and autobiography, hot titles are The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Dean and Me by Jerry Lewis, The Beatles by Bob Spitz, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey and the "cute" Marley and Me by John Grogan.

History and politics sales are "being driven" by Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Other big sellers in this area are 1776 by David McCullough, Teacher Man by Frank McCourt and Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter.

"It's been a very literary year," Nasshan noted, citing high-level sales for The March by E.L. Doctorow and Christ the Lord by Anne Rice. Most impressive, according to Nasshan, has been Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, which he singled out for its "tremendous" sales. The company has been displaying it "front and center," and even though the movie has had only very limited release, "it's surpassed our expectations." He added that the publisher, Vintage, had done well "tying the cover to the ad to the movie trailer, much like The Chronicles of Narnia. It's really clicked with people."

In children's, publicity manager Beth Bingham said, it's "all things Narnia. We've had great sales since the release of the movie trailer in the spring."

So far, there have been no major disappointments in sales, although one field in which "we could have had more published," as Nasshan put it, was sports. "Typically it's a very, very good category." The Education of a Coach by David Halberstam has scored for the company. Driven from Within by Michael Jordan is slowly moving upcourt. Payton by Connie, Jarrett and Brittney Payton is also picking up speed. In addition, Sports Illustrated: The Football Book and ESPN College Football Encyclopedia have attracted fans. Still, the field of sports books this year "does not have the same power as last year," when one of the leaders was Phil Jackson's The Last Season.

Nasshan added that it has "not been a particularly strong year for genre fiction."

Borders has had no problems obtaining some of the titles reported by wholesalers and other booksellers to be in short supply although "there have been times where it was shaky." The reason the company has been well stocked, Nasshan said, is because it has been "quick getting information to publishers who have worked very diligently to respond." Also Borders anticipated well, he said. For example, the company took "a big stand" on The Complete Calvin and Hobbes based on two years of experience with The Complete Far Side. The company has even had adequate supplies of Rachael Ray 365, not easily available every day of the latter part of this year.

Borders was "very pleased with the performance" of its unusual promotion involving Robert Sabuda's Winter's Tale: An Original Pop-Up Journey. Beginning November 1, Borders and Walden stores had huge pop-up scenes based on the book and sold some exclusive related gift items. "They held up very nicely," Nasshan said.

In other Borders news, the company and its customers raised $400,000 in the month ended December 15 to support First Book, which, through some 240 organizations around the country, gives books to children from low-income families.

Also, the company's Metairie, La., store, the only Borders store in the New Orleans area, has been open and running for some time. "It's one of the few retail locations in the area to be open all day, and customers in the area are so appreciative," Bingham said. "It's a refuge in all the craziness." Bingham added the company is proud of the store and staff, who were aided in part by the Borders Foundation, which helps employees in need.

Yesterday on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show, John Carlin offered sketches of Masters of American Comics (Yale, $45, 030011317X), which he co-edited.

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Yesterday NPR's Morning Edition eyed Ted Allen, the food and wine guy on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and author of The Food You Want to Eat: 100 Smart, Simple Recipes (Clarkson Potter, $27.50, 1400080908).

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In a repeat, tonight's Daily Show with Jon Stewart hails former chief Jimmy Carter, author of Our Endangered Values (S&S, $25, 0743284577).

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Tomorrow morning the Today Show offers a star of the season, Rachael Ray, author of Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats (Clarkson Potter, $19.95, 1400082544).

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Tomorrow on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show: Kenneth C. Davis, author of Don't Know Much About Mythology (HarperCollins, $26.95, 006019460X).

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Tomorrow on KCRW's Bookworm: Stanley Crawford, author of Petroleum Man (Overlook, $23.95, 1585675571). As the show describes it: "In this satire of corporate greed, a 'gas-guzzling' super-magnate writes a loving description of every car he has ever owned. What is more, he intends to leave this chronicle of automotive ownership to his (largely indifferent) grandchildren. This, it is implied, is our great American Heritage."

In today's New York Times, Margo Jefferson recommends two "books that you will want to keep (or buy with that nice gift certificate). They are books that sharpen the mind and stir the heart":

• The Solitude of Self: Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stanton by Vivian Gornick (FSG), about one of "that astonishing band of 19th-century American radicals who changed the way we live--among them Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Susan B. Anthony and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Abolitionism taught the women to fight for justice; feminism challenged the men to expand their vision of what justice means."
• No Applause--Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous by Trav S. D. (Faber & Faber), a "delicious cultural history [that] tracks America's sturdiest entertainment form back to Roman clowns and medieval Feasts of Fools, then forward to snake-oil salesmen and blackface minstrels; magicians and ventriloquists; trained mules and seals; stars like Mae West, Bert Williams, the Marx Brothers, Fanny Brice, W. C. Fields, Fred Astaire and the Nicholas Brothers; the comics who ruled 1950's television and those who rule each new season of Saturday Night Live; the avant-garde of Becket and Ionesco and 'new vaudevillians' like Penn and Teller, Bill Irwin and the Bindlestiff Family Circus."

In the first chapter of Home Rules, Nate Berkus says, "Everyone can learn to decorate, on any budget. Be willing to take a few risks along the way . . . Why not buy that antique lamp you love and figure out where it goes later?" Why not, indeed? Isn't that why we have garage sales? But he starts with a few good questions that can temper the sometimes-risky desire for antique lamps--which is your favorite room in the house, how much time, energy and money are you willing to spend, and do your decorating dreams correspond with the way you actually live. The photographs are engaging, and most of his ideas seem practical and affordable (with the exception of Oprah's closet with a leather floor). Several features stand out--before and after pictures are always fun, and Berkus includes easy updates for different rooms that you can do in an hour, a day, or a weekend. He gives sensible advice, at least by my standards: "Buy a piece you love. Eventually it will make its way into your décor," and  "pairing items from completely different price ranges is a sign of good design," not to mention smart and practical.  Home Rules may be slightly geared toward novice decorators, but will entice home-decorating book junkies as well.--Marilyn Dahl