This is our last issue of 2006, our first full year of publication. We wish everyone, particularly all you hard-working booksellers, a profitable and healthy end of December and a new year that is full of abundance in many ways.

Any readers who want to share stories about holiday sales should e-mail us.

We will reappear on Tuesday, January 2, a day when we can all welcome in 13-digit ISBNs. O-JOY-LONGER-NUMBERS.

The blizzard that shut down much of Colorado the past two days led to the closing of the Tattered Cover's Highlands Ranch store and reduced staff and hours at the Lower Downtown and Lowenstein Theatre locations, the Denver Post reported. The LoDo store drew "a fair number of travelers stranded in downtown hotels," but overall sales during this key shopping season were below normal. Owner Joyce Meskis told the paper, "When you have to close for a few days because of a storm like this, you tend to not make that up."

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A little more news about the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series is trickling out. Yesterday on her Web site, via a kind of treasure hunt, J.K. Rowling revealed that the title of the tome is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In the runup to publication, there is much more to be unveiled. Scholastic emphasized that the manuscript has not been delivered, there is no pub date and an ISBN hasn't been assigned (incidentally it will be a magical ISBN-13). Artwork (left) is available from Scholastic for promotional purposes.

Still, some retailers are already jumping on the Harry bandwagon. Barnes & Noble and Borders are allowing customers to sign up for e-mail notification of when they can reserve copies online, and Borders customers may place reservations in stores.

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Bookselling This Week celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Tudor Book Shop and Café  in Kingston, Pa., which has grown to a 4,800-sq.-ft. store from 144 square feet. The stores is owned by sisters Barbara Shaffer and Lynn Gonchar.

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BTW also sailed to Nantucket for a story about Nantucket Bookworks, founded in 1972 and owned since 2000 by Wendy Hudson. "August is our December," she told BTW. "Christmas is more like our June."

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At the end of January, Borders is relocating its Boulder, Colo., store from 1600 Pearl Street to a 23,129-sq.-ft. site at Twenty Ninth Street, which the company described as "Boulder's new premier retail district." 

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In March, Borders is opening a 22,169-sq.-ft. store in Fort Myers, Fla., in the Gulf Coast Town Center, a new 1.8 million-sq.-ft. regional shopping, dining and entertainment center.

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Sterling Publishing and Hollan Publishing have signed a joint venture agreement whereby Hollan will publish at least 25 "high-end, illustrated romantic lifestyle books" in a variety of nonfiction categories. Eight to ten of the titles will be published under the Ravenous imprint and be photographic books on sexuality and lovemaking. The first 10 of the joint venture titles will appear on the fall 2007 list.

Hollan's principals are Holly Schmidt, co-founder and publisher of Fair Winds Press, and more recently of Quiver, both of which are owned by the Quarto Group, and Allan Penn, a photographer whose work has appeared in a variety of galleries, magazines and more than 200 books.

Shoppers at University Book Store in Seattle, Wash., might be the recipients of unexpected holiday goodwill while browsing the aisles. For the second year, the store (which has several branches in the surrounding area) sent 20% discount postcards to customers on its mailing list. Extras are available in the store for staffers to bestow on favored customers. "It's a thank you for shopping with us," said head buyer Jay Weaver.

One of the biggest sellers at the University Book Store is Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. "He's a local boy," said Weaver of the recipient of this year's National Book Award for Nonfiction. "The paperback edition has been flying," he added, although it is currently out of stock. The Audacity of Hope by Senator Barack Obama and The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai are other popular choices.

Although the University Book Store is a general interest retailer, sales are sometimes influenced by campus events. This connection accounts for the popularity of Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World. All incoming freshman are required to read a designated book, and this year's selection was the Pulitzer Prize-winning title. Freshman received the book free, but interest in Mountains Beyond Mountains spread throughout the community and has made the nonfiction narrative a popular gift selection.

School spirit is inspiring purchases of sweatshirts, jerseys, bumper stickers and other merchandise adorned with University of Washington sports team insignias. Additional sidelines selling well are games, puzzles, knitting supplies, journals and calendars--particularly the 2007 George W. Bush Out of Office Countdown Calendar. Perhaps customers are pairing it with another top selling item, the Bush Countdown Keychain. A clock on the keychain ticks off the amount of time (down to the second) left until the current president vacates the Oval Office.

Conservatize Me: How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon, Sean Hannity, Toby Keith, and Beef Jerky by local radio personality John Moe is featured in the University Book Store's holiday gift guide. Other books benefiting from placement in the gift guide, which is available both online and as a print version, include Les Beletsky's Birds of the World, Jewels: A Secret History by Victoria Finlay, A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005 by Annie Leibovitz and Daniel J. Levitin's This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession.

Sales at the store indicate that some of the books Seattle's youngest residents will be unwrapping next week include Flotsam, Rainbow Bob, Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship, Owen & Mzee: The Language of Friendship and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation Volume 1: The Pox Party.

Last weekend the University Book Store held a book fair for a local high school. "It's a good time of year to do that," noted Weaver, "and we haven't held one during the Christmas season for the past couple of years." Parents, teachers, students and others associated with the school were invited to shop in the store over a three-day period, and 15% of their total purchase price was donated to the school.

Rachael Ray's 2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds was in the spotlight earlier this month when the bubbly chef and talk show host appeared at the store. A crowd of 400 turned out to stand in line for a signed copy of the book.

Aside from the frenzy ignited by Ray's visit, shoppers seem calm, noted Weaver, with sales steady but not stellar. "I don't think we're going to break any records," he said, "but it's going okay." Weaver expects substantial traffic the week between Christmas and New Year's, followed by "rush week" beginning January 3 when students return to the university for the new semester.

As for Weaver's holiday shopping list, friends will be receiving Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest by Gerard J. DeGroot and Destination Art by Amy Dempsey, while his 11-year-old son is getting a copy of D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths. And what book would Weaver like to be given this Christmas? Barry Lopez's Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape.--Shannon McKenna

Today on the Martha Stewart Show: chef Geoffrey Zakarian, author of Geoffrey Zakarian's Town/Country: 150 Recipes for Life around the Table (Clarkson Potter, $37.50, 1400054680).

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Tomorrow the Early Show feasts with Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, whose latest tome is Lidia's Family Table: More Than 200 Fabulous Recipes to Enjoy Every Day-With Wonderful Ideas for Variations and Improvisations (Knopf, $35, 1400040353),

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Monday, Christmas Day, on Good Morning America: Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, whose latest page turner is John's Story: The Last Eyewitness (Putnam, $24.95, 0399153896).

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On Boxing Day, on the Early Show: Alicia Shepard, author of Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate (Wiley, $24.95, 0471737615).

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Next Wednesday, December 27, on the Today Show: Heidi Baker and Eden Jarrin, purveyors of the Web site www.bejane.com and authors of Be Jane's Guide to Home Empowerment: Projects to Change the Way You Live (Clarkson Potter, $29.95, 0307339904).

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Next Thursday, December 28, on the Today Show: Barbara Fairchild, author of The Bon Appetit Cookbook (Wiley, $34.95, 0764596861).

The following were the bestselling titles during the week ended Sunday, December 17, at member bookstores of the Great Lakes Booksellers Association and the Midwest Booksellers Association as reported to Book Sense:

Hardcover Fiction

1. For One More Day by Mitch Albom (Hyperion, $21.95, 1401303277)
2. The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins, $26.95, 0060563451)
3. Next by Michael Crichton (HarperCollins, $27.95, 0060872985)
4. Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf, $25.95, 0307262995)
5. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks (Warner, $24.99, 0446528056)
6. Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (Random House, $26.95, 0375509321)
7. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone, $25.95, 0743272501)
8. Cross by James Patterson (Little, Brown, $27.99, 0316159794)
9. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Algonquin, $23.95, 1565124995)
10. The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry (Putnam, $15.95, 0399154132)
11. The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (FSG, $25, 0374146357)
12. The Handmaid and the Carpenter by Elizabeth Berg (Random House, $17.95, 1400065380)
13. Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille (Warner, $26.99, 044657967X)
14. Amazing Peace by Maya Angelou (Random House, $9.95, 1400065585)
15. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (Atria, $26, 0743298020)

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (Crown, $25, 0307237699)
2. Marley & Me by John Grogan (Morrow, $21.95, 0060817089)
3. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson (Broadway, $25, 076791936X)
4. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (Knopf, $19.95, 0307264556)
5. The Innocent Man by John Grisham (Doubleday, $28.95, 0385517238)
6. Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter (S&S, $27, 0743285026)
7. I Like You by Amy Sedaris (Warner, $27.99, 0446578843)
8. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson (Crown, $25.95, 1400080665)
9. The Intellectual Devotional by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim (Rodale, $22.50, 1594865132)
10. You: On a Diet by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. (Free Press, $25, 0743292545)
11. Truck by Michael Perry (HarperCollins, $24.95, 0060571179)
12. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (Morrow, $27.95, 0061234001)
13. Culture Warrior by Bill O'Reilly (Broadway, $26, 0767920929)
14. Weird Michigan by Linda S. Godfrey (Sterling, $19.95, 1402739079)
15. Joy of Cooking (75th Anniversary Edition) by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker (Scribner, $30, 0743246268)

Trade Paperback Fiction

1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin, $14, 0143037145)
2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead, $14, 1594480001)
3. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Grove, $14, 0802142818)
4. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Random House, $13.95, 0812968069)
5. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Norton, $13.95, 0393328627)
6. The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult (Washington Square, $15, 074349671X)
7. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (Washington Square, $14, 0743454537)
8. March by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin, $14, 0143036661)
9. Snow by Orhan Pamuk (Vintage, $14.95, 0375706860)
10. Wicked by Gregory Maguire (Regan Books, $16, 0060987103)
11. Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan (Ballantine, $14.95, 034546401X)
12. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (Back Bay, $13.95, 0316010707)
13. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (HarperSanFrancisco, $13.95, 0061122416)
14. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (, Penguin, $15, 0143034901)
15. On Beauty by Zadie Smith, Penguin, $15, 0143037749)

Trade Paperback Nonfiction

1. Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama (Three Rivers, $14.95, 1400082773)
2. The Iraq Study Group Report (Vintage, $10.95, 0307386562)
3. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Scribner, $14, 074324754X)
4. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage, $14.95, 0375725601)
5. Bad President by R.D. Rosen, Harry Prichett, Rob Battles and James Friedman (Workman, $8.95, 0761146202)
6. The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2007 (World Almanac, $12.99, 0886879957)
7. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris (Back Bay, $8.95, 0316779237)
8. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (S&S, $19.95, 0743270754)
9. The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner (Amistad, $14.95, 0060744871)
10. 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz (Workman, $18.95, 0761104844)
11. The Places in Between by Rory Stewart (Harvest, $14, 0156031566)
12. An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore (Rodale, $21.95, 1594865671)
13. 365 by Rachael Ray (Clarkson Potter, $19.95, 1400082544)
14. Rachael Ray 2, 4, 6, 8 by Rachael Ray (Clarkson Potter, $19.95, 1400082560)
15. Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook by Dawn J. Ranck (Good Books, $16.95, 1561483397)

Mass Market

1. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, Fourth Edition (Merriam-Webster, $7.50, 0877799296)
2. The Christmas Thief by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark (Pocket, $7.99, 0743272250)
3. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton (Berkley, $7.99, 0425212696)
4. The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury (Signet, $9.99, 0451219953)
5. Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley (Bantam, $7.99, 0553589083)
6. New Comprehensive A-Z Crossword Dictionary edited by Edy Garcia Schaffer (Avon, $7.50, 0380724251)
7. Deception Point by Dan Brown (Pocket, $9.99, 1416524800)
8. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (Pocket, $9.99, 1416524797)
9. A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg (Fawcett, $6.99, 0345480260)
10. The Broker by John Grisham (Dell, $7.99, 0440241588)

Children's Titles

1. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (Laurel-Leaf, $6.99, 044023848X)
2. The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 13) by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Brett Helquist (HarperCollins, $12.99, 0064410161)
3. Eldest by Christopher Paolini (Knopf, $21, 037582670X)
4. Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick (Carl R. Sams II Photography, $19.95, 0967174805)
5. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd (HarperCollins, $7.99, 0694003611)
6. Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser (HarperCollins, $15.99, 0060542098)
7. Christmas by Robert Sabuda (Orchard, $12.99, 0439845688)
8. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (Houghton Mifflin, $18.95, 0395389496)
9. Tails by Matthew Van Fleet (Red Wagon, $13.95, 0152167730)
10. Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton (Workman, $6.95, 0761143726)
11. Pirateology by Captain William Lubber (Candlewick, $19.99, 0763631434)
12. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (children's movie tie-in edition) by C.S. Lewis (HarperCollins, $7.99, 0060765461)
13. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick, $18.99, 0763625892)
14. Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Mark Buehner (Dial, $16.99, 0803729952)
15. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic, $9.99, 0439785960)

[Many thanks to Book Sense, GLBA and MBA!]