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At Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air -- a super thin laptop computer that looks fabulous but doesn't have much power and only one USB port. In an interview Jobs took the opportunity to slam Amazon.com's Kindle reading device, saying that it's "going nowhere."

Today he had a wide range of observations on the industry, including the Amazon Kindle book reader, which he said would go nowhere largely because Americans have stopped reading.

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore," he said. "Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore."

Steve Jobs is a genius, but he's wrong about reading. People still love to read books. It's only the technology of how they read that is changing. In Japan, for instance, people are absolutely obsessed with reading novels on their cellphones. And the Kindle sold out at Christmas. Sure, it's not gorgeous like the iPhone, but it does what it was designed to do -- perfectly.

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The Mystery Writers of America has announced the nominees for the 2008 Edgar Awards. They are:

Best Novel:

• Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (Henry Holt and Company)
• Priest by Ken Bruen (St. Martin's Minotaur)
• The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)
• Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books)
• Down River by John Hart (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Best First Novel By An American Author:

• Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
• In the Woods by Tana French (Penguin Group - Viking)
• Snitch Jacket by Christopher Goffard (The Rookery Press)
• Head Games by Craig McDonald (Bleak House Books)
• Pyres by Derek Nikitas (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original:

• Queenpin by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
• Blood of Paradise by David Corbett (Random House - Mortalis)
• Cruel Poetry by Vicki Hendricks (Serpent's Tail)
• Robbie's Wife by Russell Hill (Hard Case Crime)
• Who is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall (Simon & Schuster)

Best Critical/Biographical:

• The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction by Patrick Anderson (Random House)
• A Counter-History of Crime Fiction: Supernatural, Gothic, Sensational by Maurizio Ascari (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Deviance in Contemporary Crime Fiction by Christiana Gregoriou (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley (The Penguin Press)
• Chester Gould: A Daughter's Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy by Jean Gould O'Connell (McFarland & Company)

Posted in Mystery/Thriller

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Priscilla Painton, the former deputy managing editor of Time magazine has been hired by Simon and Schuster to run the adult trade imprint.

David Rosenthal, Simon & Schuster's publisher, said he had hired Ms. Painton because he wanted to "bring someone with a very fresh perspective of things." Ms. Painton, 49, had been at Time for nearly two decades before she resigned, working first as a reporter and then as an editor. Before being appointed deputy managing editor, she served as Time's executive editor, which made her the highest-ranking woman editor in the history of the magazine.

At Simon & Schuster, Ms. Painton will acquire and edit books as well as oversee a team of nine editors. Until now, the editors have reported to Alice Mayhew, who is Simon & Schuster's editorial director. Ms. Mayhew will continue to acquire and edit titles and will report to Mr. Rosenthal, as will Ms. Painton.

"I just felt the strong need to launch a second career," Ms. Painton said. She said she saw publishing as complementary to her experience and that her network of contacts could serve as a pool for possible authors.

Mr. Rosenthal said he hoped Ms. Painton's media connections would benefit the publishing house. "Media is critical to how we publicize and promote our books, so a sophisticated knowledge of that ain't a bad thing to have," he said.

It's an interesting hire: Ms. Painton's media connections apparently weighed heavily in the decision. She worked at Time for twenty years, first as a reporter and then as an editor.

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Publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced that it is moving up the release date for Christopher Paolini's eagerly awaited third book in the bestselling "Inheritance Cycle" series, which began with Eragon. The next book will be titled Brisingr, which is an Old Norse word for "fire." The new release date is September 20, 2008, with a first printing of 2.5 million copies.

"Brisingr is one of the first words I thought of for this title, and it's always felt right to me," said Paolini. "As the first ancient-language word that Eragon learns, it has held particular significance for his legacy as a Dragon Rider. In this new book, it will be revealed to be even more meaningful than even Eragon could have known."

"After the initial announcement of Book Three's release, we received an outpouring of requests from booksellers hoping to host midnight launch parties," said Nancy Hinkel, publishing director for Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers. "We have responded to their enthusiasm by advancing the date, and we know fans will welcome the opportunity to celebrate the publication together."

The book will be released at 12:01 a.m. on September 20th, so that booksellers can plan midnight launch parties.

Unfortunately for fans, there has been no announcement for a sequel to the Eragon film which was a critical and box office disappointment.

Posted in Fantasy/SF

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She certainly didn't waste any time pursuing her dream of being a published author: at 18 Cassandra Carter is now published by Harlequin. She has two more books on the way.

Cassandra Carter is one to make you think, "Hmm...what the heck was I doing with my teenage years?" The 18-year-old's own reply involves a nationally published book and two more in the works. Her debut novel, "Fast Life," was published in July as part of the "Tru" series from Kimani Press, a division of Harlequin that focuses on African-American young-adult fiction. Carter started the book when she was just 14, after getting the idea from, of all places, a dream.

"I woke up and - I hate telling people this because it makes me sound crazy - but I heard a voice ... saying, 'Cassandra, you should write a book about that.' So I created this character. It was about this girl and she's ... got to go and move real quick, and everything else just kind of came."

There's a lot of "everything else," since the move is over in the first 50 pages. What follows is a fast-talking, high-rolling rumble following Kyra Jones between Chicago and an island in the Bahamas, complete with gorgeous guys, sniping girls, friendships gone horribly bad, scandalous wealth, the illegal drug industry and a few more page-turners that I can't tell you about without tipping off the last half of the book.

Carter worked on it all through the summer she was 15, and when it was done she mentioned it to her grandmother, Sandee Grassi. "I wasn't at all surprised," said Grassi. "Cassandra has always impressed me with her dream of and enthusiasm for writing."

Cassandra has now graduated from high school and is delaying college to work on her next book, 16 Isn't Always Sweet, which will be published in March, and a sequel to her first book, Fast Life.

Posted in Romance

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Britain's Royal Mail has just issued a set of stamps commemorating Ian Fleming's greatest fictional character, James Bond. It has been 100 years since Fleming was born. The six stamps feature original cover artwork of the James Bond books, including Dr. No, Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and From Russia With Love. They come in a variety of denominations for both domestic and overseas use. Sean Connery was on hand for the launch of the commemorative stamps.

You can see close ups of all of the stamps here.

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The new Jose Canseco book hit a road bump: Canseco's co-author, Sports Illustrated writer Don Yaeger just quit the project.

The book already has a publisher and was to be titled "Vindicated", but Yaeger decided to pass on the project over what he said was a lack of content to work with. According to the report, Yaeger said Canseco does not have the goods on Yankees star Alex Rodriguez that was hinted at in an earlier interview.

"I'm passing," Yaeger told the Daily News. "I had a chance to review the Jose Canseco (material) that he provided me. I don't think there's a book there. I don't know what they're going to do. I don't think he's got what he claims to have, certainly doesn't have what he claims to have on A-Rod. "There's no meat on the bones."

Canseco's lawyer, Robert Saunooke, told the newspaper that the book would move forward regardless. "I'm not sweating it if Don passes," Saunooke said in an interview with the Daily News. "We had some terms of the contract concerning movie rights that we had to address which pushed the manuscript date back. But we're still moving forward."

That's good news for A-Rod...unless, of course, Canseco can find another co-author (doesn't he mean ghostwriter?) who's willing to write a book based on the facts that Yaeger found so unimpressive.

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The woman who was the inspiration for Patricia Cornwell's famous character, Kay Scarpetta, has retired at the age of 66. Virginia's chief medical examiner, Dr. Marcella Fierro, gave an interview to the young author who then went on to write many bestsellers starring fictional medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. The two became friends over the years.

Fierro, whose last day was Monday, worked on some of the nation's most notorious crimes, including the Virginia Tech massacre and Richmond's Southside Strangler killings. And though she would never admit it, many would argue she was the catalyst for the explosion of forensic-science TV shows, movies and books.

In 1984, Cornwell, then an aspiring writer, got an appointment with Fierro to ask questions about what a medical examiner does. Fierro became the inspiration for Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the heroine of what would prove to be a string of best-selling thrillers for Cornwell. "I would not be where I am today in my life were it not for Dr. Fierro," Cornwell says.

Kay Scarpetta is chief medical examiner of Virginia, at least in Cornwell's earlier novels. But aside from their jobs and penchant for Italian food, Fierro sees little resemblance between her and the fictional doctor. "Kay is blond, blue-eyed and 115 pounds," she says dryly. "I've never been blond, I have brown eyes, and I haven't weighed 115 pounds since I was 12."

Cornwell sees a stronger connection. "What she does have in common with Marcella is this amazing database between her ears, a tremendous compassion for the victims, and she will fight to the death for them," Cornwell says. "She has always been a tremendous advocate for those who can no longer speak for themselves."

*****

Fierro, who has been married to her college sweetheart for 41 years, favors romantic comedies, thinks the CBS series "Numb3rs" is "the cat's meow," and devours thrillers. She is indifferent toward the "CSI" series. And she can't tolerate violent movies or TV shows. "I cannot find a shooting or a stabbing entertaining. I simply can't," she says. "My frame of reference - absolutely wrong for gore."

It's hard to imagine that the hard-boiled medical examiner can't even sit through a play or movie that has violence in it, but that's what Patricia Cornwell says about her longtime friend. Dr. Fiero may be retired, but she will live on in Cornwell's books.

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A new survey revealed that Generation Y -- those who are between 18 and 30 years of age -- use libraries quite a bit. But not for the books -- they go for the computers.

Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y, the survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said. "These findings turn our thinking about libraries upside down," said Leigh Estabrook, a professor emerita at the University of Illinois and co-author of a report on the survey results. "Internet use seems to create an information hunger and it is information-savvy young people who are most likely to visit libraries," she said.

Internet users were more than twice as likely to patronize libraries as non-Internet users, according to the survey. More than two-thirds of library visitors in all age groups said they used computers while at the library. Sixty-five percent of them looked up information on the Internet while 62 percent used computers to check into the library's resources. Public libraries now offer virtual homework help, special gaming software programs, and some librarians even have created characters in the Second Life virtual world, Estabrook said. Libraries also remain a community hub or gathering place in many neighborhoods, she said.

The survey showed 62 percent of Generation Y respondents said they visited a public library in the past year, with a steady decline in usage according to age. Some 57 percent of adults aged 43 to 52 said they visited a library in 2007, followed by 46 percent of adults aged 53 to 61; 42 percent of adults aged 62 to 71; and just 32 percent of adults over 72.

"We were surprised by these findings, particularly in relation to Generation Y," said Lee Rainie, co-author of the study and director of the Pew project. In 1996 a survey by the Benton Foundation found young adults saw libraries becoming less relevant in the future.

Hey, as long as they're going to libraries that's a good thing. And you never know, they might even be tempted to pick up a book while they're there.

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The new list
of America’s most literate cities is out: the citizens of Minneapolis and Seattle are the most well-read.

The survey focused on 69 U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or above. Jack Miller of Central Connecticut State University chose six key indicators to rank literacy. These included newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.
Overall, the top 10 most literate (and wired) cities included:



1-Minneapolis, Minn.

2-Seattle, Wash.

3-St. Paul, Minn.

4-Denver, Colo.

5-Washington, D.C.

6-St. Louis, Mo.

7-San Francisco, Calif.

8-Atlanta, Ga.

9-Pittsburgh, Pa.

10-Boston, Mass.


*****


Some cities that didn’t make it to the overall top 10, however, did strut their stuff in one of the six key literacy indicators. For instance, while Newark, N.J., was the 49th most literate city overall, it shared the top spot for newspaper circulation with Washington, D.C.



Plano, Texas, ranking 51st on the overall most-literate-city list, came in second for educational attainment. The education ranking included two factors: the percentage of the city’s adult population with a high school diploma or higher and those with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

How did your city stand up to the competition? Even if it did poorly, you can still consider yourself a beacon of literacy in an illiterate town.



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HarperCollins is moving up the release date for Benazir Bhutto's new book, in light of her tragic assassination. Publishers Weekly reports that Ms. Bhutto just finished the manuscript last week.

HarperCollins is rushing its planned book by former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated today at a rally in Pakistan. The world leader, known as "the first daughter of Pakistan," just finished the book. According to agent Andrew Wylie, who brokered the deal, the manuscript was "completed only a week ago."

Ironically, and perhaps ominously, titled Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West, the book was originally set for Spring but will now be published "as soon as possible," said editor Tim Duggan. In describing the book, Duggan said it details "[Bhutto's] vision for how to bridge the political and cultural gap between the Islamic world, which is becoming increasingly radicalized, and the West." Adding that the publisher's "thoughts and prayers are with the Bhutto family," Duggan said HarperCollins does not yet have a firm release date for the title.

Benazir Bhutto's assassination today was a terrible tragedy and a great blow against democracy in Pakistan. Her new book will no doubt have a great impact.

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A source at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has denied
reports that the company was going to sell off HarperCollins to Bertlesmann, which had offered $1 billion for the publisher.

News Corp is not in discussions with Europe’s biggest media company Bertelsmann AG BERT.UL or any other party on the sale of its book publisher HarperCollins, a News Corp source said, shooting down a published report.
German business weekly publication manager magazin reported without quoting sources that Bertelsmann was interested in buying publisher HarperCollins for $1 billion, adding that Murdoch was demanding $2 billion.



Bertelsmann declined comment on Wednesday. News Corp said it does not comment on speculation.
Speculation over the sale of the News Corp division that published Nobel prize winning novelist Doris Lessing has dogged the company for years.
Bertelsmann’s new chief executive, Hartmut Ostrowski, said last week that the company, Europe’s biggest media firm, wants to spend up to 7 billion euros ($10.1 billion) to grow over the next five years.

It’s very interesting that neither company will issue a formal statement denying the sale. Who is this “source” anyway? We’re not convinced that Murdoch hasn’t considered a sale.



Posted in Book Publishing News



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Author Tony DiTerlizzi says that the upcoming film based on his and Holly Black's bestselling Spiderwick Chronicles series might be much scarier than the books.

As a boy, author/illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi was told he "had a weird imagination." At a recent preview of the movie based on The Spiderwick Chronicles, the best-selling series DiTerlizzi wrote with Holly Black, he said, "This exceeds my boyhood imagination by miles." The five-book series about a family's battle with trolls, ogres and goblins has sold 4 million copies.

The movie, which stars Freddie Highmore and opens Feb. 15, may be scarier than the books. "When you read about an ogre, somehow it seems less scary than seeing it up on the big screen," DiTerlizzi says. But Black says, "You never know what's going to scare kids." One 6-year-old reader "thought the scariest thing was the part about the parents' divorce."

The film features the acting talents of Seth Rogen (voice of Hogsqueal), Mary-Louise Parker (Helen Grace), David Strathairn (Arthur Spiderwick), Martin Short (Thimbletack/Bogart) and Nick Nolte (voice of Mulgrath).

Posted in Children's Books

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Winter in White and The Chronicles of Narnia are two new pop-up books created by Robert Sabuda. In this interview WSJ's Robert Hughes speaks to Robert Sabuda about what goes in to creating these intricate books. Sabuda says small books can take up to four months and large books can take as long as a year. Sabuda says, "I want the pop-up book to have as many pop-ups on the inside as I can get because the kid in me wants to see lots of pop-ups in the book."



Posted in Children's Books

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Amazon.com announced that it plans to take J.K. Rowling's new book The Tales of Beedle the Bard on tour. But it also says that details haven't been figured out yet.

Amazon spokesman Craig Berman said Amazon wants to take the book on tour to libraries and schools, though the company doesn't yet have detailed plans. Amazon representatives did not disclose where the book is being stored. One of the book's five original stories, "The Tale of the Three Brothers" is told in the final "Harry Potter" novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

" 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' is really a distillation of the themes found in the 'Harry Potter' books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years," Rowling said in a prepared statement. Rowling said the six other copies of the "Beedle" books have been given to people who were closely connected to the "Harry Potter" collection.

"Purchasing this book with the proceeds going to charity does, in a real tangible way, say thank you to J.K. Rowling for what she's done for readers around the world," Berman said. Rowling said she'd donate the proceeds to The Children's Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.

J.K. Rowling hasn't yet commented on the fact that it was Amazon.com which won the book auction. But we feel sure that Jeff Bezos is trying to get her to allow the release in some kind of mass market format.

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In a shocking announcement, it was revealed that Amazon.com was the high bidder for the handwritten and illustrated book by J.K. Rowling called The Tales of Beedle the Bard. The $4 million sale proceeds goes entirely to The Children's Voice campaign, a charity Jo co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe. Amazon has created a special section dedicated to the book, with reviews of each of the stories and detailed photos of the gorgeous and rare book.

Under the terms of the auction, J.K. Rowling retains the copyright to the book and the purchaser is forbidden from publishing it in a mass market edition. That doesn't mean that Jo won't ever allow it to be published, of course. Her foremost concern was raising money for charity.

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In this video Make Magazine teaches you how to make a book that has a secret compartment so you can hide things in it. Note: don’t use your favorite book for this project.

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The Reader's Roundup section on readersread.com has been updated. The Reader's Roundup includes lists of new hardcover releases and lists of upcoming books that can be pre-ordered.

Here is a list of some of the upcoming titles:

Dragon Harper by Anne McCaffrey, Todd J. McCaffrey (December)

The Appeal by John Grisham (January)

The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky (January)

Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton (Januar)

First Patient by Michael Palmer (February)

The Ancient by R. A. Salvatore (March)

Where Are You Now by Mary Higgins Clark (March)

What Happened by Scott McClellan (April)

The Host by Stephenie Meyer (May)

You can see the full list here.

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Doris Lessing is too ill to attend the ceremony in which she will be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Doris Lessing is unable to travel to Stockholm to receive her Nobel prize for literature on December 10 due to back problems. Instead, the Nobel foundation will present the ?766,000 prize to the 87-year-old British writer in London, after medical advisers told her not to travel. In London, Lessing's representative, Olivia Guest, confirmed the cancellation had "to do with her back". Lessing had been invited to collect the award at the ceremony in Stockholm along with the Nobel winners in chemistry, physics, medicine and economics on December 10, the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel 1896.

*****

Literature prize winners traditionally give a lecture in Stockholm before accepting the award. Lessing's lecture would be prerecorded and shown at the academy on December 7, the foundation said. Guest said she hoped Lessing would be able to record her lecture in London, but added that plans to do so "aren't set in stone".

How awful to finally win the biggest prize in literature and then be too ill to attend. Doris is tough, though. And we know her lecture would bound to irritate lots of people -- and that's always fun.

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Robert Scoble was so excited to receive his new Amazon Kindle ebook reader that he videotaped the exciting unboxing. The Kindle reviews seem to be falling into two camps: 1) the hardcore tech peeps who don't like it because they prefer a multi-use device that functions as an ebook/phone/pda/computer/espresso maker and 2) the hardcore readers who love it because it does one thing and does it very well -- allow you to instantly buy books from Amazon.com using your existing account and be able to carry around hundreds of books with you when you're on the go.

You can find out more about the Kindle (or buy one) at Amazon.com. They are really selling out; they are now on backorder until December 6th so you might want to hurry if it's part of your holiday shopping plans.

Here's the exciting unboxing video:



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The Kindle has landed. It's finally here -- the Kindle has landed. Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com kept a veil of secrecy around the much-hyped ebook reader until the official launch. The ebook reader, which we earlier described here, retails for $399. It uses electronic ink, like the Sony ebook reader, which is very easy to read. The biggest selling point is that your purchase price also buys you free wireless connectivity to Amazon.com: you have the largest selection of books online right at your fingertips. You can buy and download a new book in minutes, and all the books cost $9.99 or less.

A number of bestselling authors have been trying out the device and are giving it rave reviews. We haven't tried it out yet, but we were quite impressed with bestselling author Neil Gaiman's (Stardust, American Gods, Sandman) incredibly positive review. Neil loves his technology and he wouldn't say it was great if it wasn't. See his video here. See the new Kindle and read all the specs here.

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Oprah has chosen a very interesting book for her new Book Club Selection: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (New American Library). The writer of thrillers writes out of his normal genre to tackle the political and social issues of Medieval Europe. The focus of the book is the building of great cathedral. Here's what Publisher's Weekly said about the title:

Follett's depiction of the precarious balance of power between monarchy and religion in the Middle Ages, and of the effects of social upheavals and the forces of nature (storms, famines) on political events; his ability to convey the fine points of architecture so that the cathedral becomes clearly visualized in the reader's mind; and above all, his portrayals of the enduring human emotions of ambition, greed, bravery, dedication, revenge and love, result in a highly engrossing narrative. Manipulating a complex plot in which the characters interact against a broad canvas of medieval life, Follett has written a novel that entertains, instructs and satisfies on a grand scale.

You can read an excerpt, get a reading guide, send Ken Follett an email and much more at Oprah.com. You can see a list of Oprah's past picks here.

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Several news outlets ran stories with rumors of an eighth Harry Potter book called James Potter and the Hall of Elders. A website, EldestCrossing.com was set up using the official Warner Bros. logo for the Harry Potter films. The site asks for a special password which you can get by clicking the magic bean in the right, lower-hand corner. The message says that the site will be live soon. But it was all a hoax. The site is registered to 1&1 Internet, Inc., 701 Lee Road, Suite 300, Chesterbrook, PA, 19087. Harry Potter News and Rumors reports:

Rumors of an eighth Harry Potter book have plagued the fandom for years, even after vehement denials by JK Rowling and her representatives. Well, we can put another to rest. A few news articles detailing a professionally crafted web site called Elder's Crossing have popped up recently that seem to hint at a new story named James Potter and the Hall of Elder's Crossing. HPANA can now confirm that it is not connected in any official way to the series.

"Jo has not written an eighth book in the series and is not doing so," Rowling's agent Neil Blair has told HPANA. "So no James Potter book I'm afraid."

UPDATE: Warner Bros. also assures us the site is not connected to them.

So, there you have it. No eighth Potter book, alas.

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This is really disturbing: 13% of the materials from the Library of Congress are missing. The fact that a bunch of the library's stuff is essentially lost due to incompetence turned up at a Congressional hearing.

About one-sixth of the books, monographs and bound periodicals at the Library of Congress weren't where they were supposed to be because of flaws in the systems for shelving and retrieving materials, according to a survey to be made public at a congressional hearing today. Officials at the library say they believe most of the missing materials are misplaced, not stolen or lost.

Investigators for the congressional library have told lawmakers on a House oversight committee that its review of the retrieval system for the general collection concluded that a 17 percent of materials requested could not be found. "A subsequent review found 4 percent were either on nearby shelves, checked out to the public or marked with the wrong call numbers. But it remains deeply troubling that nearly 13 percent are unaccounted for by library officials," said Howard Gantman, staff director of the joint congressional committee on the library. The Library of Congress's Office of the Inspector General did the survey earlier this year but did not make it public.

Library staff followed usual procedures and no follow-up audit was necessary, according to the report by Karl W. Schornagel, the library's inspector general, but the chairman and ranking member of the House Administration Committee were so upset by the finding that they have summoned James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress, to answer questions about it at a hearing today. The 17 percent rate of missing materials "is unacceptable, and a clear indication that we must reassess how we manage this Nation's priceless collection that exceeds 130 million items," said Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the committee, in a statement.

Since receiving the assessment in the spring, library officials have accelerated efforts to track down the books. "The number of not-on-shelf books has dropped each year. A quality assurance team in the past several months has reduced that rate to 10 percent," said Deanna Marcum, the associate librarian for library services. Established in 1800, the Library of Congress is one of the world's largest research facilities. It has 135 million items, including almost 20 million books, 59.5 million items in the manuscript division, and nearly 3 million sound recordings and radio and television broadcasts. It has 615 miles of shelving.

Let's get cracking, people! This is the Library of Congress, for Pete's sake. Find those books!

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Terri Irwin is writing a book.

For grieving widow Terri Irwin, writing a book about her life with "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was a painfully raw ordeal. But she says the outpouring of public grief that followed the iconic nature lover's death last year planted in her a sense of obligation to his millions of fans around the world.

"I felt kind of compelled to do something so that people could sit down and understand Steve better and where he came from and what we stood for and what we tried to achieve," the 43-year-old Oregon-born mother-of-two told The Associated Press at the family zoo in northeast Australia.

"I'd been so kind of self-absorbed with my own sadness that I hadn't really thought about everybody else ... so I thought maybe a book would help people to come to know the human side of Steve."

*****

"I spent months on end crying and crying and crying; remembering the hard times was hard and remembering the good times was hard," she said. His toothbrush remains in Irwin's bathroom and his trademark khaki shirts hang ironed in her closet. How painful an experience was the writing? "Extremely," she said. Cathartic? "No, not even remotely," she replied. "They ebb and flow, just like I do," she said. Daughter Bindi is 9, and Robert turns 4 in December.

"For me personally, it's that one day at a time feeling and I've chosen to continue as if Steve was still here," Irwin said. "I really believe if anyone thought of Steve as a hero, everything he lived for and believed in must continue." His toothbrush remains in Irwin's bathroom and his trademark khaki shirts hang ironed in her closet.

Steve and Me: Life With the Crocodile Hunter is available at Amazon.com and all major bookstores.

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