"We have a treasure-house of literature, going back to the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans. It is all there, this wealth of literature, to be discovered again and again by whoever is lucky enough to come upon it. Suppose it did not exist. How impoverished, how empty we would be."--Doris Lessing, from her Nobel Prize acceptance speech, which was reprinted in the Guardian.

Bertelsmann "is considering the sale of its book, DVD and music clubs in countries outside its home market of Germany," the Financial Times reported, adding that the anticipated move by Hartmut Ostrowski, the media group’s new chief executive, is a signal that he will try "to focus the company on faster-growing markets."

According to the Times, "discussion about Direct Group’s future flared in September when its head, Ewald Walgenbach, who had seen himself as a contender to become chief executive, announced his departure and the unit was split. The U.S. business, with annual sales of €1billion (US$1.48 billion), is now run by Bertelsmann book division Random House."

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Happy second anniversary to the Book Vault, Oskaloosa, Iowa, which celebrated last week "with sales, chocolate and an Iowa author visit," according to the Oskaloosa Herald.

"Today was fantastic," said owner Nancy Simpson. "It was a celebration of an independent book store succeeding in a small town. We were trying to say thank you to the community for supporting us."

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Dictionary publishers have turned their "Word of the Year" announcements into an effective marketing tool. Today's New York Times explores the phenomenon, noting that when editors at the New Oxford American Dictionary recently made "locavore" their choice for 2007, "they also became the very definition of publicity."

Merriam-Webster's word of the year will be announced later this week, the culmination of a process in which visitors were asked to vote for one of 20 words on the dictionary's website. Contenders include "facebook" and "vanity sizing."

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The Claremont Courier profiled Kyle Hernandez, who responded last September to an "If you want to own a bookstore . . ." sign in the window of Claremont Books & Prints, Claremont, Cal., and is now the store's new owner. Hernandez purchased the shop from Charles “Chic” Goldsmid, "who had been seeking just the right book enthusiast to . . . continue the life of the used and rare bookstore." The bookshop reopened November 23 as Second Story Books of Claremont.

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Holiday book gift suggestions for a targeted audience:

With its retirement and savings books list, the Chicago Tribune suggested "giving a road map for a more successful financial future."

The Los Angeles Times offered "Favorite SciFi Books of 2007 . . .  a year of epic ingenuity and imaginative realms aplenty."

For cooks, the Baltimore Sun served up "new cookbook titles worth giving."

"A group of newly published books antiques aficionados might appreciate" were featured in the San Jose Mercury News.

The art and architecture critics at the New York Times showcased their favorites for 2007.

The Guardian's sports section highlighted "The Joy of Six: great football books."

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Crossroads Market Bookstore & Café, Dallas, Tex., is closing at the end of the month. The gay bookstore, founded in 1981, is owned by Richard Longstaff, who bought it four years ago.

Longstaff told the Dallas Voice that the store's lease is running out and the rent asked for by the landlord is too high for Longstaff.

Sales had fallen by about 20% since a Borders opened nearby and the expansion of a mall and a decline in daytime foot traffic also hurt, Longstaff said. Union Jack, a clothing store Longstaff also owns, is healthy. Customers' card points are being transferred to Union Jack.

In a general e-mail, the store thanked "the entire community for its ongoing support and partronage. We deeply regret closing such a nationally recognized gay establishment and meeting place. We do look forward to seeing the Cedar Springs Strip continue to be the unique and interesting array of shops and businesses it has been for many years."

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Cool Idea of the Day: yesterday at the Bull Durham Playhouse and Coffee Shop in Jefferson, Tex., the Pulpwood Queens (and Kathy Patrick and Beauty and the Book) offered a free screening of the Powell's Out of the Book production of The Coldest War, about the book by the late David Halberstam, and Darius Goes West, a film about the effort by Darius Weems, a 15-year-old with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, who had never left his hometown of Athens, Ga., and friends to travel to Los Angeles to convince the MTV show Pimp My Ride to customize his wheelchair.

The Pulpwood Queens aim to put on regular screenings in the future. 

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Barnes & Noble plans another related store opening and closing. Next August, it will open a store in the Livingston Mall at 112 Eisenhower Parkway at South Orange Avenue in Livingston, N.J. The day before that store opens, the B&N at 518 West Mt. Pleasant Avenue will close.

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Did you read The 2007-2012 Outlook for Rollerball Pens in Greater China? Business Week reported that this is just one of 300,000 books author and editor Philip M. Parker has "written." A marketing professor at INSEAD--a business school in France--Parker created the recently patented software program that "searches databases for the content of his formulaic genres."

"He may be the most prolific author in history," said Amazon's Kurt Beidler.

John Evans, co-owner of Diesel: A Bookstore, with stores in Oakland and Malibu, Calif., related to Shelf Awareness the following cautionary tale for booksellers. It started a week ago Saturday morning when the store received a call from Eric Gower, author of The Breakaway Cook, who was appearing at a multi-author event at Diesel's Oakland store that afternoon.

"My car has been stolen and I need you to help me," he told Evans. "I've found a rent-a-car company that will rent to me, but I need you to send me $150 by Western Union. I can give you the address and information to send it. I'll give you $400 when I get up there, for helping me out."

Evans declined the $400, and Gower said, "Yeah, you don't need the money." So Evans asked what happened and where he was, thinking that if he were in the Bay Area, someone from the store could pick him up.

But Gower said he was in Los Angeles, explaining, "I locked my keys in my car, with all of my credit cards, and my computer with all the photos I have of my mother in it. I went to get something to open the car, and when I came back, there was just broken glass and my car was gone with everything in it." To Evans, he sounded desperate and a bit dramatic, both over the top and honestly anxious. Evans noted: "It sounded strange though, calling us and not someone else, when there was no way to make the event in any case."

Evans suggested Gower forget traveling to Oakland, but Gower pleaded, "I have two other appointments up there and need to get back today. I'll bring in $400 tomorrow after I get up there. Let me give you the information for wiring the money."

Evans told Gower to call back when the events person Gower had been dealing with would be in the store. But Gower did not call back, so Diesel staff set up for the event without space for Gower. Evans continued: "Everything looked great for the event and at start time, in walks Eric! We asked him what happened and he didn't know what we were talking about."

Evans called it the "Nigerian author scam, the latest in an endlessly inventive series of attempts to hustle and shakedown unwitting booksellers of their hard-earned cash."

Effective January 1, Graphic Arts Publishing Company is expanding its agreement with Ingram Publisher Services--which since February has handled Graphic Arts's warehousing, order processing and collections--to include sales representation. Ingram has a minority investment in the company.

Associate publisher Douglas Pfeiffer said that the change would allow Graphic Arts to "focus on expanding the front list for our three imprints--Graphic Arts Books, Alaska Northwest Books and Westwinds Press--and give increased attention to marketing our books as well as those from our distributed publishers."

In a related move, Michael O. Campbell has become director of sales and marketing for Graphic Arts. He was formerly corporate and specialty sales manager. Before joining the company two years ago, he was sales and marketing director for Timber Press and national sales director for Barron's Educational Publishing. Earlier he worked at HarperCollins, Workman and S&S.

Campbell will work with the IPS sales force "to get the maximum benefit from their sales effort and Graphic Arts marketing programs," the company said. Graphic Arts will continue its own specialty and corporate sales as well as provide trade and gift sales services. Sara Juday will continue to support Graphic Arts sales in Alaska as well as other Ingram Publisher Services clients.

This morning on the Early Show, Bill Clinton, who discusses his most recent book, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World (Knopf, $24.95, 9780307266743/0307266745).

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This morning on the Today Show: Judith Jones, author of The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food (Knopf, $24.95, 9780307264954/0307264955).
 
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Today on Live with Regis and Kelly: Jim Cramer, author of Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer) (S&S, $26, 9781416558859/1416558853).

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Today on CNN's Glenn Beck Show: Maureen Faulkner, author of Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain, and Injustice (Lyons Press, $24.95, 9781599213767/1599213761).

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Tonight on Larry King Live: Victoria Beckham aka Posh Spice, author of That Extra Half an Inch: Hair, Heels and Everything in Between (Harper, $19.95, 9780061544491/0061544493).

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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Tom Brokaw, author of Boom!: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today (Random House, $28.95, 9781400064571/1400064570).

I Am Legend, based on the novel by Richard Matheson, opens this Friday, December 14. Will Smith stars as the last human left in New York City after a deadly virus outbreak. Directed by Francis Lawrence. The movie tie-in edition is from Tor ($7.99, 9780765357151/0765357151).

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Youth Without Youth, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, also opens on Friday. Tim Roth stars as a European professor living as a fugitive in the years leading up to World War II. Based on the novella by Mircea Eliade (University of Chicago Press, $12, 9780226204154/0226204154).

From last week's Book Sense bestseller lists, available at BookSense.com, here are the recommended titles, which are also Book Sense Picks:

Hardcover

The Art of the Snowflake: A Photographic Album by Kenneth Libbrecht (Voyageur Press, $30, 9780760329979/0760329974). "Beautifully illustrated and full of the most interesting facts you'd ever want to know about the delicate snowflake. Highly recommended."--Jennifer Lehman, Bloomsburg University Store, Bloomsburg, Pa.

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo (HarperCollins, $24.95, 9780061133992/006113399X). "Norwegian detective Harry Hole is immersed in a mystery with roots in World War II in this brilliant evocation of how the tentacles of the past cling to the present, and are the true instigators of action. This powerful novel delves into the complexity of belief and collaboration, and rises above the genre."--Bill Cusumano, Nicola's Books, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Paperback

Small-Batch Baking: When Just Enough for 1 or 2 . . . Is Just Enough! by Debby Maugans Nakos (Workman, $13.95, 9780761130352/0761130357). "Go on, admit it. Now that the kids are out of the house, when you bake a cake, you eat the whole thing. Not all at once, but every time you pass by, you take a bite. Then you have to neaten up the edges. Soon, crumbs are the only evidence there ever was a cake. This book helps bakers avoid temptation, with recipes for small batches of everything from Bundt cakes to biscuits."--Deb Hunter, Chicklet Books, Hillsborough, N.J.

For Children

If You See a Fairy Ring: A Rich Treasury of Classic Fairy Poems illustrated by Susanna Lockheart (Barron's Educational Series, $16.99, 9780764160288/0764160281). "If You See a Fairy Ring combines superb poetry and beautiful drawings. When you open this book, you might start to believe in magic."--Garrad Bradley, The Imagine Atrium, Jersey City, N.J.

[Many thanks to Book Sense and the ABA!]

Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities by Russell Ash and Brian Lake (Harper Perennial, $14.95 paperback, 09789780061346651/0061346659, October 2007)

Russell Ash and Brian Lake have spent decades compiling book titles for their ultimate fantasy retirement project, The Complete Bizarre Books. In the meantime, we will have to make do with Bizarre Books, a collection of real titles, "published with the serious intention of informing, not amusing." In this they have signally failed. From the frontispiece illustration of Fish Who Answer the Telephone to Thrilling Experiences of the First British Woman Relieved by Lord Roberts, there is something for every taste, with books arranged roughly by subject. Authors and subjects are perfectly matched in one chapter: Leslie Lines who wrote Solid Geometry or Anna Mews who wrote Care for Your Kitten. From The Art of Faking Exhibition Poultry to Why Bring That Up? A Guide to and from Seasickness to Becoming a Sensuous Catechist, you'll laugh, you'll look at your bookshelves in a different way and you'll get some great ideas for a display table.

Scouts in Bondage, and Other Violations of Literary Propriety by Michael Bell ($15, S&S, 9781416549239/1416549234, October 2007)

One of the books Ash and Lake include is Scouts in Bondage, "And what a stirring series of adventures and mysterious experiences they all had . . . " The authors might want to contact Michael Bell, whose book is titled Scouts in Bondage, the same book but missing the dust jacket. Lest you think the two books cover the same ground, however, Wilhelmina Stitch in the first book is the author of Silken Threads, and in this compilation she is featured as writing Homespun, so there is plenty of whimsy and wonder to go around. Bell includes many double-entendre titles, like How Nell Scored, but most of the titles are charming (Pamela Pounce, A Tale of Tempestuous Petticoats) or sometimes puzzling (Tossa--is this a Britishism that I am missing?). In any case, the covers are all in full color, and Scouts in Bondage is perfect for someone who loves books.

The Sexual Guide to Written Intercourse, Fulfilling Grammar, and Seductive Usage by Arnold Rabin (Consortium Publishing, available from B&T, $24.99 paperback, 9780940139640/0940139642)

People who appreciate books also (we hope) appreciate good writing, which customarily involves knowing the difference between lie and lay. Grammar and usage aficionados will find much to enjoy in Arnold Rabin's quirky book about writing and language. Rabin is, among other professions, a playwright, novelist and English professor, and he brings passion and humor to the quest for effective communication.

At first amused by the idea that sex, writing and the principles covering good writing are interconnected and that sexual analogies metaphorically illuminate the same, he says he kept hearing these overtones as he repeated to his classes "that language is a means of communication, writing requires stimulation, composing is physical process, ideas must have a gestation period." Thus a book was born in the hope that he could make matters "deemed by many as remote and inaccessible, more manageable," and convince beginning writers that writing, like sex, is "best approached when you are not uptight about it."

The basics of grammar and usage are presented wittily and clearly, with the proviso that rules can get in the way. You can't make love by only following the rules nor can you be inhibited by fear of making a grammatical error. "Who cares about the English teacher's caution not to begin a sentence with 'and' as one reads the resounding opening lines of Genesis." Yes, indeed.--Marilyn Dahl