August bookstore sales of $2.081 billion were up just 1.9% from the same period a year ago, according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau. The gain marked just the third time this year that sales in a particular month were higher this year than in the same period last year.

The gain occurred during a summer of steadily rising energy costs and mixed results in retailing. (Hurricane Katrina had no effect on the figures since it occurred at the very end of the month.) Perhaps August results were aided by a Harry statistical lag?

For the year to date, bookstore sales are $10.332 billion, down 2.2% from last year's January-August sales.

By comparison, general retail sales in August rose 10.2% to $329.4 billion, and for the year to date, sales have risen 7.8% to $2.458 trillion.

More signs of a difficult late summer and fall come from Borders Group.

Because of "weaker than expected sales trends" at all of its types of stores in the U.S. and the U.K., Borders has lowered its earnings estimates for the third quarter, which ends this coming Saturday, October 22.

The company had projected a loss for the quarter of between 8 and 12 cents a share but has changed that to 16 to 20 cents a share.

Through this past Sunday, sales at stores open at least a year fell 0.7% at Borders superstores and 5.5% at Waldenbooks. The company had predicted "flat to up slightly" at Borders and "flat to down in the low single digits" at Walden. In the same period, international sales have increased 5.8%, less than the predicted 9%-12% range, primarily because of weak U.K. comp-store sales, which are down in the mid single digits.

Borders has also withdrawn its previous fourth quarter and full year estimates, which will be re-issued on November 15.

According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Veronica Patterson, manager of the Barnes & Noble in Collierville, Tenn., a Memphis suburb, which opens officially tomorrow, was able to snag an unusual star for the store's preview party tonight: Isaac Hayes, her father.

Hayes has long had an interest in literacy in part through his foundation as well as as a spokesperson for the World Literacy Crusade, a Scientology effort. "All of the problems in our society are connected to literacy," Hayes told the paper. "When people know how to read and write, they get the self-respect they need."

According to the Commercial Appeal, Patterson has worked in retail management for 21 years, including more than eight years at Old Navy, where she opened several new stores.

This morning on the Today Show, family attorney Mark Barondess talks about his new book (available for a reasonable price), What Were You Thinking?: $600 Per Hour Legal Advice on Relationships, Love, Marriage, and Divorce (Phoenix Books, $25.95, 1597775002).

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This morning on the Early Show, Pam Peeke weighs in on weight loss as she discusses her new book, Body for Life for Women: A Woman's Plan for Physical and Mental Transformation (Rodale, $26.95, 1579546013).

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Today Diane Rehm takes a spin with Steven Watts, author of The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (Knopf, $30, 0375407359).

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Today on the Leonard Lopate Show:

• Christopher Kennedy Lawford, author of Symptoms of Withdrawal (Morrow, $25.95, 0060732482)
• Amy Tan, whose new novel is Saving Fish from Drowning (Putnam, $26.95, 0399153012).

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Yesterday on Fresh Air: On Beauty author Zadie Smith (Penguin, $25.95, 1594200637).

Movies opening this Friday, October 21:

North Country, directed by Niki Caro (Whale Rider), chronicles the first successful sexual harassment suit in the U.S. Starring Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sissy Spacek and Sean Bean, this story was inspired by the book Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler (Anchor, $15, 0385496133).

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Shopgirl, based on Steve Martin's bestselling novel (Hyperion, $11.95, 1401308279). Directed by Anand Tucker, starring Martin, Claire Danes and Jason Schwartzman, this dark comedy of manners follows Saks Fifth Avenue employee Mirabelle as she struggles with enigmatic relationships, inadequate finances and fate.

The title of the new Lemony Snicket book, aka Series of Unfortunate Events #12, which goes on sale today, is The Penultimate Peril.

Also appearing October 25:

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin (S&S, $35, 0684824906). Historian Goodwin examines the unusual relationship between Lincoln and his three competitors for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination--all more polished and more educated than he--who became key members of his cabinet.

Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Knopf, $20, 140004460X). A 90-year-old aficionado of purchased sexual relations discovers sex without love is empty and unfulfilling.

Between You and Me: A Memoir by Mike Wallace with Gary Paul Gates (Hyperion, $26.95, 1401300294). 60 Minutes interrogator Wallace recalls significant moments from his 50-year interviewing career.

Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember by John McCain with Mark Salter (Random House, $23.95, 1400064120). Profiles in Character? Each tale recounts a hero whose virtue is an example to everyone, including Winston Churchill, George Washington, a Catholic priest in Auschwitz and many others.

The Krzyzewskiville Tales

Every year there should be a book treasured for its unspellable and unpronounceable title or author. Duke University Press has scored with this basketball book built around a Chaucerian conceit in The Krzyzewskiville Tales by Aaron Dinin ($21.95, 0822336332, October). Visions of countless booksellers and customers struggling with Krzyzewski (Sha-shef-ski), giving up and trying variants on Dinin, recall Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Remember when everyone was practicing saying "Chick-sent-mih-high?" Fortunately, Dinin's book can also be treasured for its wit and charm.

Every year, a tent city is formed at Duke and used to determine which students are admitted into home games. Named Krzyzewskiville after Duke's head basketball coach, it's filled with students huddled in tents, subject to complicated rules and arcane customs. Aaron Dinin tells the story of these intrepid Cameron Crazies, as they are called, using The Canterbury Tales as his model--12 students, a sportswriter and a competition to tell the best story.

Dinin begins with a Chaucerian prologue ("When January with his show'rs frozen/Has shrouded all in this town of Durham. . ."), and ends with a glossary of tenting talk. In between, the tales of the English Major, the Pre-Law Student, the Engineer and nine others unfold. The Math Major begins his story by explaining, "Being a Cameron Crazie isn't all fun and games . . . it takes hours of practice, patience, sweat, and even blood to earn the distinction of being the best fans in the nation."

Although the primary market for this book is obvious, it would be enjoyed by anyone wanting to read about college basketball, college life, digs at sociology majors or the anthropology of demented, blue and white-painted sports fans.--Marilyn Dahl

Kaplan is combining its business trade publishing operation, Dearborn Publishing, and its test prep trade publishing program into a new entity, Kaplan Publishing.

Kaplan's test prep trade publishing program had been a joint venture with Simon & Schuster. S&S will continue to provide back office functions and order fulfillment for that division of Kaplan Publishing.

Roy Lipner, who had been president of Dearborn, will head Kaplan Publishing. Maureen McMahon, who had been v-p, publisher, of the test prep unit, will hold the same position for Kaplan Publishing's test prep division. Likewise, Cynthia Zigmund, v-p, publisher of Dearborn, will hold the same title with Kaplan Publishing's business division.

The most recent book by John Feinstein, who appeared on Imus in the Morning yesterday, is Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL (Little, Brown, $25.95, 0316009644), which has just been released, not Caddy for Life.