Cedco Publishing, the major calendar and sidelines publisher in San Rafael, Calif., has quietly shut its doors and reportedly let all staff go. A main company number has a message that Cedco's "office is no longer open for business" and refers inquiries to the company's lawyer. Calls to the lawyer have not been returned. At least several reps have yet to be notified officially of the company's closing or of what to tell accounts.

Cedco was founded in the late 1970s by Charles E. Ditlefsen (the "CED" of Cedco) and was best known initially for its trains calendars, particularly Those Magnificent Trains. In recent years, Cedco published hundreds of calendars on a variety of subjects and had loaded up on licensed calendars, including ones related to Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Sopranos, The O.C. and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among other shows and movies. The company also published cards, gift books, blank journals, address books and date books.

Cedco had employed about 50 people.

Perhaps it was a 10th birthday present to itself.

Yesterday Amazon announced second quarter results that were slightly above analysts' estimates, which is always a good thing. Analysts had been concerned that Amazon sales are not growing as fast as e-commerce sales in general and that its customer-friendly shipping and discounting programs might erode margins. After results were announced, shares rose about 10% in after-hours trading.

Net sales grew 26% to $1.75 billion in the quarter ended June 30 while net income dropped 31.6% to $52 million, although this included $56 million in income tax expense compared to $5 million in income tax expense in the same period a year ago. (In other words, net income would have risen $108 million.) In addition, operating income grew 21% to $104 million.

The company expects net sales for the full year to jump 20%-25% to between $8.275 billion and $8.675 billion.

Amazon also indicated that third-party sales account for 28% of items sold, up from 24% a year ago.

Among other highlights: North American sales rose 21% while international (i.e., the rest of the world) rose 29%, factoring in currency fluctuations. International sales now represent 45% of company net sales.

As for other news revealed by Amazon yesterday, we'll spare you relaying yet again the number of copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that were ordered worldwide before pub date, making it Amazon.com's largest new product release. . .

Borders Group has tapped three general retailing executives to fill out its board, which had been short following the departures in the last two years of former Borders executives Bob DiRomualdo and George Mrkonic as well as Peter Formanek.

The three are:

• Donald G. Campbell, senior executive v-p, chief administrative and business development officer of the TJX Companies, the off-price retailer of apparel and home fashions.
• Brian T. Light, executive v-p, business delivery, for Staples, the office supply retailer.
• Michael Weiss, retired president and CEO of Express, the Limited Brands subsidiary that sells high fashion clothing for young men and women.

This is Bookworm's vision of its show tomorrow, which has the theme Beyond Identity--A Dark Vision: "Tom Wolfe discusses neuroscience and its view that there is no such thing as identity--a powerful computer might be able to predict human behavior. He speculates on the coming of a vast psychological depression. Margaret Atwood talks about the coming threat to identity by cloning and genetic experimentation The Irish writer John Banville rails that identity does not exist." We can't wait.

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Tomorrow Diane Rehm dishes with Kristin Gore, daughter of Al, whose first novel, Sammy's Hill (Miramax Books, $12.95, 140135971X), set in Washington, D.C., surprise surprise, has just come out in paperback.

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Talk about Fresh Air. Yesterday the show featured author and actor Martin Moran whose new memoir is The Tricky Part: One Boy's Fall from Trespass into Grace (Beacon Press, $23.95, 0807072621), which recounts, in part how, as a boy, he was sexually abused by a male counselor at a Catholic boys' camp, and then, nearly 30 years later, went to see the man at a convalescent home.

The film version of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Anchor, $11, 0385722206), directed by the book's author, Dai Sijie, opens Friday. The movie marks a kind of circular achievement: Dai wrote the book, based on his experiences during the Cultural Revolution, in part because his career in film was stagnant. The book became a worldwide bestseller, allowing Dai to direct and film to his heart's content. Dai's second novel, Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch (Knopf, $22, 1400042593), was published here just last month.

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Night Watch, directed by Timur Bekmambetov and starring Konstantin Khabensky, opens this Friday. Made for just $4 million and originally released in Russia, where it surpassed hits such as Spider-Man 2 and The Lord of the Rings at the box office, this is the first tale in Sergei Lukyanenko's science fiction trilogy (Night Watch, Day Watch and Twilight Watch) that portray an epic struggle between Light and Darkness on the streets of Moscow. The second film is expected to be released here next winter, while the third installment is still in the works. English-language editions of the original books apparently are yet to be released.

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Tony Takitani, directed by Jun Ichikawa and starring Issey Ogata and Rie Miyazawa, also opens this Friday. Based on a story by Haruki Murakami, the film follows Tony Takitani, a mild-mannered illustrator, as he meets and marries a client who is addicted to high-priced designer clothing. Tony, used to being cold and lonely, opens up and discovers life as he never knew it.

Book TV airs from 8 a.m. Saturday until 8 a.m. Monday on C-Span 2 and focuses on historical and political books and publishing news. For more information, go to Book TV's Web site.

Saturday, July 30

7 p.m. Encore Booknotes. In a segment first aired in 1996, Robert Ferrell discussed President Warren G. Harding, the subject of his book The Strange Deaths of President Harding (University of Missouri Press, $19.95, 0826212026).

Sunday, July 31

6 p.m. After Words. Kirk Victor, who covers the Senate for the National Journal, interviews Senator Rick Santorum (R.-Pa.), whose new book is It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good (ISI Books, $25, 1932236295). (Re-airs at 9 p.m.)

7 p.m. History on Book TV. In an event that took place at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., Charles Cerami discussed his book Young Patriots: The Remarkable Story of Madison, Hamilton, and the Crisis That Built the Constitution (Sourcebooks, $24.95, 1402202350).

8 p.m. Public Lives. Leslie Berlin downloaded stories about Robert Noyce, co-inventor of the integrated circuit, co-founder of Intel and subject of her book, The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley (Oxford University Press, $30, 0195163435). Includes Q&A.

Ronni Stolzenberg has joined St. Martin's Press as associate director of marketing. She was formerly at Sterling and earlier worked at Dell and HarperCollins. She has developed campaigns for many authors, including John Grisham, John Gray and Danielle Steel and at St. Martin's will focus on hardcover marketing.