"Can it possibly be worth all the money and time it takes to fly two people across the country and put them in hotels and drive them around and feed them? We aren't complaining (last night was the first night in ages that one of my kids didn't pounce on my bed before dawn), but in this day and age, it's hard to imagine a less-efficient means of promotion. Maybe HarperCollins will let us see the resulting California sales data as well as the final expense reports. I'm guessing the cost per sale will rival the cost per vote of most Congressional elections."--Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics, in the book's blog.

Space-Crime Continuum, the 10-year-old Northampton, Mass., sci-fi/fantasy store where patrons could play fantasy card and board games, is closing, the Springfield Republican reported. Owners Chris A. Aylott and Debora F. Tomaselli are moving to Austin, Tex., where Aylott is taking a job as managing editor at Steve Jackson Games.

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Copperfield and Co., Macomb, Ill., is closing, according to the Macomb Journal. Manager Stacy Peterson attributed the move to "the change in the economic climate with the Internet, big box stores and corporate bookstores. Despite our steady stream of devoted customers, we were unable to keep up with that kind of competition."

Owned by Katherine Marion, Copperfield and Co. was founded in 1988. The store burned to the ground in August 2001 but was able to reopen in another location in time for the holidays.

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In the New York Sun, Mysterious Bookshop owner Otto Penzler investigates the initial offerings of Felony & Mayhem Press, the new mystery imprint founded by Maggie Topkis, a co-owner of Partners & Crime, the New York City mystery bookstore. The press publishes in six categories and sells only to independent bookstores.

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The Wall Street Journal states that Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio's rare but significant purchases of company stock are followed by an average 50% rise in value in the following six months.

For his part, Riggio, who last month spent $15.3 million on some 380,600 B&N shares (apparently much of it cash flow from other businesses), said his investments in B&N are for the long term and that July's buying occurred because certain limitations on his purchases had lifted. In fact, considering B&N's big runup in price already this year, he said, "If I was so timely, I would have spent this extra $15 million six months ago."

Tonight the Daily Show with Jon Stewart hosts John Crawford, author of The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq (Riverhead, $23.95, 157322314X), whose official pub date is tomorrow.

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Scheduled for tonight on Charlie Rose: the hopeful immortal, Ray Kurzweil, co-author of Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever (Rodale, $24.95, 1579549543).

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Tomorrow the Today Show goes on a short journey with Steven Squires, author of Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity and the Exploration of the Red Planet (Hyperion, $25.95, 1401301495).

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Tomorrow Diane Rehm talks an hour with Bebe Moore Campbell, whose new novel is 72 Hour Hold (Knopf, $24.95, 1400040744).

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Bookworm tomorrow hosts Maya Angelou. According to the show, Angelou "believes that a writer who tells the truth can be read by anyone. James Baldwin, for example, can be enjoyed by black, white, Moslem or Jewish readers--indeed by anyone who values reading the truth. Great literature takes us out of the limiting cage of identity politics--into the realm of truth."

If this isn't city hip, what is?

What follows is the current selection of books offered on Urban Outfitters' Web site, for which we have supplied our own possibly lame categories. Comments are a mix of unbiased publisher copy and our observations. Interestingly many of the selections have numbers in the title and/or are essentially long lists. Topics range from travel and cultural history (with an edge) to sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. St. Martin's, Chronicle and DK each have healthy representation. Urban Outfitters has some 80 stores in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Ireland.

How To/Lifestyle

• 101 Things to Do Before You Die by Richard Horne (Bloomsbury, $14.95, 1582344930), "about testing the limits of your freedom, taking some risks, and making your dreams come true."
• 1,000 Dreams Interpreted by Michael Powell (Barron's Educational Series, $14.95, 0764127233), "a gold mine of folk wisdom and a collection of insights."
• Position of the Day: Playbook from the editors of Nerve.com (Chronicle, $12.95, 0811847012). An extension, as it were, of Position of the Day. "Each sexual position comes with an estimated caloric expenditure (for each person involved), a list of possible side effects (leg cramp, lawsuit), and equipment recommendations (hanging bar, stethoscope, cowboy hat)."
• The Long Distance Relationship Guide: Advice for the Geographically Challenged by Caroline Tiger (Quirk, $12.95, 1931686629), for those who can't make as much use of the previous title.
• The Marijuana Chef Cookbook (Green Candy Press, $12.95, 1931160058). Beyond brownies.
• Gangsta Rap Coloring Book illustrated by Aye Jay (Last Gasp of San Francisco, $8.95, 0867196041). This what up: "The juxtaposition of hard-core thugs portrayed through a children's medium made this book an underground hit in Aye Jay Moreno's first, self-published edition. Now expanded from 20 to 48 pages to include even more of the music's superstars, this collection is a witty hall of fame of gangsta rap."
• Would You Rather...?: Over 200 Incredibly Inane, Utterly Unprofound, Absolutely Absurd Dilemmas to Ponder (Penguin, $9.95, 0452278511). The subtitle says it all?
  
• Wearing Vintage by Catherine Bardey, photographs by Michael Cogliantry (Black Dog & Leventhal, $24.95, 1579122337), the "ultimate guide to finding, fixing and looking fabulous in vintage."
• Viva Vintage: Find It, Wear It, Love It by Trudie Bamford (Carroll & Brown, $23, 190325873). By "an experienced vintage seller with a passion for great fashion."

Hip History

• The Pythons by Bob McCabe and the members of Monty Python (St. Martin's, $29.95, 0312339119), the autobiography of one of the funniest comedy troupes in history.
• Hippie by Barry Miles (Sterling, $24.95, 1402714424), many far out photographs and quotations.
• Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture edited by Thurston Moore (Universe, $22.50, 0789311992). More than 80 home tapers, famous and not famous, talk about the joy of first being able to make and mix their own musical play lists.
• The Rock Snob's Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Rockological Knowledge by Vanity Fair writers David Kamp and Steven Daly (Broadway, $12.95, 0767918738).

General Travel

• 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz (Workman, $18.95, 0761104844). Sales of this 2003 bestseller refuse to die.
• Wanderlust Travel Journal (Chronicle, $16.95, 0811842061). Lots of photos as well as room to write comments.
• Abroad: A Travel Organizer and Journal by Julianne Blamain (Chronicle, $17.95, 0811828867). Besides the ample space to write, the book has tips and travel information, and asides from fellow travelers.

California and a Few Points Much Farther East

• L.A. Bizarro by Matt Maranian and Anthony Lovett (St. Martin's, $16.95, 031215562X). "The best of the obscure, the absurd, and the perverse in Los Angeles." But only 192 pages??
• The Serious Shopping Guide: Los Angeles by Rob Campbell (St. Martin's, $14.95, 0312277369).
• Resident Tourist Los Angeles by Kelly Mayfield, Chuck Mindenhall and Aaron Fontana (St. Martin's, $14.95, 0312290608).
• San Francisco Bizarro by Jack Boulware (St. Martin's, $16.95, 0312206712).
• The Underground Guide to San Francisco edited by Jennifer Joseph (Manic D Press, $15.95, 0916397696). "All the obscure, fascinating details necessary for life among the restless, inspired, and notorious."
• Not for Tourists Guide to San Francisco (Happy Mazza Media, $14.95, 0974013188).
• Let's Go San Francisco (Let's Go Publications, $16.99, 0312319975). Let's budget, too.
• The London e.guide (0756608899) and Rome e.guide (0756608988), both $15 from DK, designed for the "the hip, style-conscious traveler."

Foreign Speak

15-Minute Spanish (0756609275) and 15-Minute French (0756609313), both part of DK's Eyewitness Travel series, including two CDs, and retailing for $19.95. They use a visual approach, befitting the publisher.

Sometimes Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, reaches back in time for her monthly book picks, highlighted in Costco Connection. For August, she does so in two ways: she has chosen the 2000 bestseller, The Fig Eater by Jody Shields (Back Bay, $13.95, 0316785261), a psychological murder mystery set in Vienna in 1910, when the capital of Austria-Hungary was full of cultural, artistic and political ferment.

The Fig Eater features "the Inspector," who works on a case involving a young woman who is found brutally murdered in a park. The woman turns out to be Dora, Sigmund Freud's most famous patient. Ianniciello picks up the trail: "The Inspector's Hungarian wife, Erszebet, launches her own secret investigation, invoking the powers of intuition and mysticism. The rational and the intuitive compete to solve the mystery in this gripping tale of repressed and expressed passion at the edge of World War I.

"Shields may be trained in visual arts, but she offers readers a first novel that delivers on plot, scene setting and character development."