"I am a writer by trade. Anything else that I do, I think I just do it to survive."--Victoria Gotti, in a Wall Street Journal article today about her book, TV, magazine and newspaper empire. Next tome on the horizon: Hot Italian Dish, a cookbook from ReganBooks that will be served early next year.

Under a program operating in parts of the U.K., doctors whose patients are suffering from mild to moderate depression or anxiety prescribe self-help books. Patients take prescriptions to local libraries, which have stocked up on doctor-recommended titles. In some cases, doctors follow up on the patients' reading and continue the book treatment.

The "bibliotherapy" effort, chronicled in today's Wall Street Journal, is in response to overmedication of some patients and limited resources for one-on-one counseling.

A popular medication is the Overcoming series (including Overcoming Depression, Overcoming Anger and Irritability, Overcoming Panic) published by Constable & Robinson in the U.K. and New York University Press in the U.S.

Among other prescribed titles mentioned in the article:

• Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think by Dennis Greenberger and Christine Padesky (Guilford Press, $22.95, 0898621283)
• How to Stop Worrying by Frank Tallis (Sheldon Press, $10.95, 0859696103)
• Emotional Confidence by Gael Lindenfield (Thorsons, 0722532458)
• The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook (New Harbinger, $19.95, 1572242140)
• The Feeling Good Handbook by David D. Burns (Plume, $20, 0452281326)

USA Today diagnoses the bookselling phenomenon Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About (Alliance Publishing, $29.95, 0975599518), the self-published book released in late June by Kevin Trudeau that would be the bestselling book at the moment except for young Harry Potter.

The book debunks regulators, drugmakers and marketers for promoting and monitoring what the author calls harmful foods and medications. A convicted felon, former used-car salesperson and barred from hawking products and services (but not books) on TV, Trudeau has spent millions on infomercials for the book, some of which feature Tammy Faye Messner.

Our former colleague Jim Milliot, senior editor of business and news at Publishers Weekly, told USA Today that the book could be the bestselling self-published book ever. "It sold 1.5 million copies in July. He's tapped into something. People are looking for alternative advice."

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Nicole Brodeur in the Seattle Times mourns the closing of two Seattle bookstores: Madison Park Books and Beyond the Closet Bookstore. She particularly regrets the end of the latter, "the city's only gay/lesbian bookstore," which opened in 1988. Owner Ron Whiteaker told her, "Customers used to come in from Boise [Idaho] and plunk down $100 because they couldn't find this stuff in their own community."

Now, of course, much of that material is relatively easy to find in stores and on the Internet--and at discounts that Whiteaker said he couldn't meet.

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If the academic year is about to begin, it's time for many stories about textbook prices, even in general-interest newspapers. The Kansas City News offers one that offers tips on saving money.

By the way, the General Accounting Office report on textbook prices could be made public any day.

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The Lansing State Journal profiles Jamie Robinson, owner of Bestsellers Bookstore & Coffee Co., Mason, Mich., since 2001. She told the paper, "I love stories about real, true-life people--generally an uplifting book."

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After years of trying to lure a bookstore to the primarily Latino South Side of San Antonio, Tex., community groups are celebrating the anniversary of the opening of a Waldenbooks in the South Park Mall. The San Antonio Express-News marked the occasion with an editorial about "preconceived notions" and remarked that "bookstore patrons are now lobbying for expansion of the 3,000-sq.-ft. space."

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Bern Marcowitz and Margot Rosenberg, owners of Dog Lovers Bookshop and authors of The Care and Feeding of Books Old and New: A Simple Repair Manual for Book Lovers (St. Martin's Griffin, $13.95, 0312326033), have begun running a monthly column on Biblio.com's Collector's Connection. They offer advice on simple ways to protect, clean and repair old and new books and incorporate ideas suitable for dealers and collectors to increase the value of their books. 
Marcowitz and Rosenberg also serve as marketing consultants to Brodart Book Supplies Division. For more information: dogbooksny@aol.com or 212-696-9663.

Holly Robinson Peete, wife of NFL quarterback Rodney Peete and star of 21 Jump Street, For Your Love and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, will appear tomorrow on Oprah to promote her new book, Get Your Own Damn Beer, I'm Watching the Game!: A Woman's Guide to Loving Pro Football (Rodale Books, $14.95, 1594861633). The book will be punted into bookstores on August 15.

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Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz, authors of YOU: The Owner's Manual (HarperResource, $24.95, 0060765313), make a call tomorrow on Good Morning America. Their book, an extensive guide to healthy living, is also available in audio (HarperAudio, $29.95, 0060873396, abridged CD).

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The Leonard Lopate Show had a crowded agenda yesterday:

• David Harris, author of Profiles in Injustice (Norton, $16.95, 1565848187), argued against racial profiling as a tool of law enforcement.
• Natasha Radojcic, author of You Don't Have to Live Here (Random House, $21.95, 1400062365), discussed her coming-of-age novel about a girl who travels with her family from Yugoslavia to Cuba, Greece and New York, finding trouble at each turn.
• History professor Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, author of Racing the Enemy (Belknap Press, $29.95, 0674016939), studied the last months of World War II and focused on the roles of the U.S., the Soviet Union and Japan.
• In yesterday's edition of the Summer Reading Series on underappreciated literature, literary critic James Wood paid tribute to Italo Svevo, author of Confessions of Zeno, first published in 1923. Wood discussed how, in 1907, Svevo hired a young and unpublished James Joyce as an English tutor. It is rumored that Svevo was the inspiration for Joyce's Leopold Bloom. Confessions of Zeno was recently released in a new translation by William Weaver, with the new title of Zeno's Conscience (Vintage, $15, 0375727760).

With one of the best store names in recent memory, Aliens & Alibis Books, Columbia, S.C., opened on May Day, selling science fiction, fantasy and mysteries, "because that's what we know best," Deb Andolino, co-owner with her son, Gary McCammon, told Shelf Awareness.

The pair had wanted to open a store "for a long time, but we never thought we could," Andolino continued. Recently, however, both were unhappy with their jobs and decided to take the plunge, which has been both exciting and scary. "We love what we we're doing," Andolino said. "We wouldn't do it otherwise."

In a city with only one general independent and some Christian, African-American and chain bookstores, "it's been an eye opener for people here," she said. "People come in and ask 'Do you have any health books?' "

The 2,400-sq.-ft. store with selling space of half that size is in a strip mall that, like similar spots in urban areas, saw many businesses move out as development occurred elsewhere. But in the past few years, business is building up again. Aliens & Alibis aims to for a feel like "a home library" and has chairs, tables and lamps scattered through the store.

"Supervised" by Bertie (as in Bertie Wooster in the P.G. Wodehouse books) and Serena, two cats, the owners stock new and used titles together and have an inventory of several thousand titles. Depending on the author, they sometimes leave used editions "in the back." Andolino added that there are many more new titles than used since "mystery and science fiction readers tend not to want to give up their books."

The store's bestselling mystery titles are "an eclectic mix," according to Andolino. Some customers have been happily surprised by some of the titles by small presses such as Rue Morgue and Poisoned Pen that aren't always available. Bestselling SF/F includes titles by George R.R. Martin and Robert Jordan as well as Harry Potter tomes.

Advertising in the local Free Times giveaway newspaper has helped draw customers. Aliens & Alibis also has a "small ad" on NPR and is beginning to advertise in Penny Saver. Business has been slow this summer, but Andolino is hoping it will build now that school has begun.

Aliens & Alibis Books is located at the Capitol Center, 201 Columbia Mall Blvd., Suite 173, Columbia, S.C. 29223; 803-462-0362 and 888-571-BOOK; www.aliensandalibis.com.