"I think Sheila did a terrific job and the book is extremely interesting, but it brought back things that I didn't want to remember and from other people's voices," Simon said in a recent interview. "I saw things in a way that to me seemed just too harsh, even if they were true."

The book offers a behind-the-scenes look at Simon's 1972-83 life-in-a-fishbowl marriage to James Taylor, when they were pop music's reigning royal couple, as she struggled to get him to break his drug habit while raising their two children, Sally and Ben. "I know he had a really tough time with drugs and I had a tough time with his drugs, and I had a tough time with Ben who was very, very sick," recalled Simon. "But I was terribly in love and I got a great deal out of that relationship and . . . I don't think I would have changed anything except that I wish that James would have been happier with himself obviously. The breakup of that marriage was incredibly sad and difficult for me."

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Taylor does not keep in contact with his former wife and made no mention of their years together in his autobiographical "One Man Band" show, released as a CD-DVD last year. "I'm so erased, so erased," said Simon. "I don't think James has forgotten in any way. If he had forgotten, he wouldn't be behaving in the way he is."

Reading to young children stimulates their development and gives them a head start when they reach school, according to researchers who have reviewed studies on the effects of reading. Apart from helping their reading, sharing a bedtime story with a child promotes their motor skills, through learning to turn the pages, and their memory. It also improves their emotional and social development.

"You can imagine if someone technologically came up with a widget that would stimulate all aspects of a two-year-old's development, everyone would want to buy it," said Professor Barry Zuckerman, of the department of paediatrics at Boston University school of medicine, who led the study.

Studies show that children who are read to from an earlier age have better language development and tend to have better language scores later in life. Getting children to grip pages with their thumb and forefinger improves their motor skills.

Most important, though, said Zuckerman, is that reading aloud is a period of shared attention and emotion between parent and child. This reinforces reading as a pleasurable activity. "Children ultimately learn to love books because they are sharing it with someone they love," he said. The research is published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Book will follow Ferguson's journey from a small town in Scotland to the U.S., with stops along the way as a punk rocker, a dancer, a bouncer and a construction worker. Host will also elaborate on his battles with drugs and alcohol -- addictions he's frequently discussed on "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" -- and his suicide attempts. Ferguson cleaned up and eventually landed a role on "The Drew Carey Show," which led to his gig on the "Late Late Show" (which he's hosted for more than three years).

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Ferguson said the book will focus on "how and why I became an American." "(I) hope that it will inspire other alcoholic punk rock drummers from Scotland to find their true place in U.S. latenight television," Ferguson said. "I wanted to get the story down before I get so old I forget it and start believing the crap on Wikipedia."

Harper senior VP-executive editor David Hirshey is aboard to edit the book; HarperCollins retains world English and audio rights. "American on Purpose reads as if Ferguson had snorted Angela's Ashes, " Hirshey said.

"21 Nights," a "photographic essay" that offers "a rare glimpse into the life, lyrics, and mystique" of the maker of such hits as "1999" and "Purple Rain," will be published worldwide come fall, according to Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. The book, his first, is based on Prince's 21 sold-out concerts in as many nights at London's O2 Arena in 2007.

"Juxtaposing his duelling worlds of music and solitude, it ('21 Nights') will incorporate Prince's evocative poetry and lyrics to new songs and other selections and 124 full-colour, sumptuous, never-before-published images by celebrated photographer Randee St. Nicholas," Atria announced Monday. "21 Nights" will include a CD of after-hours jams, "Indigo Nights," unavailable from any other outlet.

Mr. Olson, who has run Random House, the world's largest consumer publisher, since 1998, has come under mounting pressure in recent months as Bertelsmann’s financial results have been damaged by lower profits at Random House and steep losses in its American book clubs, which he also oversees. Bertelsmann's recently-appointed chief executive, Hartmut Ostrowski, has lost patience with the performance of this American outpost and wants to install his own person, said these executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it involved internal personnel issues.

The terms and exact timing of Mr. Olson's departure were still under negotiation, these people said. Bertelsmann's board is scheduled to meet in New York in two weeks; an announcement could come shortly after that. "It's just a question of working out his deal," one executive said. It was not yet clear who will replace Mr. Olson, although these executives said it would not necessarily be a prominent figure from New York publishing, and maybe not even an American.

Mr. Ostrowski, 50, rose to the top of Bertelsmann as the head of its printing and services division, Arvato, and since taking the helm in January, he has placed emphasis on its nuts-and-bolts businesses. When Mr. Ostrowski laid out his strategy for Bertelsmann shortly before taking office, Mr. Olson, who was ill at the time, was missing from a lineup of executives on the stage in Berlin. The illness, these people said, had left him distracted and unavailable for long stretches last year.

Mr. Olson, a tall, reserved man who speaks fluent Russian and German, has long cut an unusual figure in the publishing industry. The highest-ranking American in a German company, Mr. Olson is known equally for his voracious reading habits and for his zealous attention to the bottom line. In 2003, he abruptly dismissed the president of the Random House Trade Group, Ann Godoff, saying in a news release that she ran the only unit "to consistently fall short of their profitability targets." In an interview, he said it would have been disingenuous to attribute her exit to other reasons. Now, Mr. Olson appears to have fallen victim to the same bottom-line calculus. Sales at Random House fell 5.6 percent in 2007, hurt by the eroding dollar and weak consumer spending. Operating profit declined 4.9 percent.

Ron Paul's loyal supporters helped him set campaign fundraising records and capture more delegates during his presidential run than some of his high-profile Republican rivals. They even managed to briefly shut down Nevada's GOP convention earlier this month over a rules change controversy.

Now they've taken his latest book to the top of the Amazon.com bestseller list. The Revolution: A Manifesto, released earlier this month, is currently No. 1 on the Web site's list of top sellers, besting even Oprah's latest Book Club selection.

"Despite a media blackout, this septuagenarian physician-turned-congressman sparked a movement that has attracted a legion of young, dedicated, enthusiastic supporters . . . a phenomenon that has amazed veteran political observers and made more than one political rival envious," boasts the book's product description, adding: "Candidates across America are already running as 'Ron Paul Republicans.'"

A book about the rise and stunning decline of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, co-authored by the makers of a book and documentary about the fall of Enron, is being published by Penguin Group (USA), Penguin imprint Portfolio announced Wednesday. Peter Elkind, who helped write the 2003 best-seller "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," is collaborating on the Spitzer book with filmmaker Alex Gibney. Gibney and Elkind will also work on a documentary about the law-and-order Democrat who resigned last month over allegations about his connection to a $5,500-an-hour call girl ring.

The book and film, currently untitled, are expected to come out around the same time, but no release date has been set. "We know Peter to be a spectacular investigative reporter, just spectacular," Portfolio publisher and president Adrian Zackheim told The Associated Press. "This is not a quickie book. He's going to do what he does best: Come back with a very, very satisfying, in-depth and complicated story."

They said they would and they did. Amazon has filed suit in New York challenging the constitutionality of the state’s newly signed measure requiring out-of-state online retailers to collect sales tax on purchases made by residents of the state. The company maintains that because it has no physical presence in the state it has no nexus requiring it to collect tax. The New York statute says that members of Amazon’s affiliates program does in fact provide nexus.

Longtime children's book editor and publisher Joanna Cotler is stepping down from her position at HarperCollins Children's Books. Cotler, who has spent the last 13 years as publisher of her eponymous imprint, Joanna Cotler Books, will become editor-at-large at the publisher as of May 13.

Cotler, whose current title is senior v-p and publisher, is leaving to focus on her sideline passion, painting. She will continue to edit select titles after her departure; moving forward these will be the only titles published under the Joanna Cotler Books banner. The imprint currently issues 15 titles a year; it has not yet been determined how many books Cotler will do once she transitions to editor-at-large.

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Over the years Cotler has worked with a distinguished list of authors, including William Steig, Art Spiegelman, Sharon Creech, Francesca Lia Block and Jamie Lee Curtis. In thanking her colleagues at HarperCollins, Cotler added that she was "most deeply honored by the authors and artists who chose to work with me. I love them all and have been so privileged to publish their books."

The first instalment of the series finale will open on November 19, 2010, with the second released the following summer. Earlier reports indicated that Part II would premiere in May 2011. The studio announced the decision to split J.K. Rowling's final book in the popular wizard series into two films last month.

David Yates will return to direct the Deathly Hallows films, making him the series's most prolific helmer, steering four of the eight Potter movies. The sixth Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, opens in cinemas this November.

Starbucks is restructuring its entertainment operation with Ken Lombard leaving as head of the group and being replaced by Chris Bruzzo, chief technology officer. It was under Lombard's direction that the giant coffee chain began selling selected books, and Starbucks said it will "continue its relationship with the William Morris Agency to identify book projects that it can offer in its stores." The most recent Starbuck book selection, chosen earlier this week, was Garth Stein's The Art of Racing (Harper).

The online initiative will launch at BEA, with the mission of connecting publishers and "professional readers," and streamlining the galley distribution process. NetGalley will enable book publishers, reviewers, media, librarians, booksellers, bloggers, educators and others to access and share content and information about new titles. Publishers that have already signed on to a pilot program include St. Martin's, Hachette Book Group, Bloomsbury USA and Sourcebooks. Those houses will submit their advance fall titles to PW through NetGalley.

During the pilot period, publishers will submit their title information -- and, optionally, digital galleys -- electronically to PW. In return, PW will provide visibility on review acceptance and status through NetGalley.com. Pilot publishers will also have the opportunity to invite other reviewers, media and bloggers to join their community and view their galleys online. Print galleys will also still be accepted.

Google, the Internet's leader in search and advertising, says the process it developed and is using for scanning the majority of the books in Book Search is proprietary. Employees will not discuss it except to say it is much faster than what Mitchel is doing and it's not destructive. "It took us quite a while to develop it so we do keep that confidential," said a library manager for Book Search, Ben Bunnell, who declined even to say where Google does the scanning.

Many libraries began digitizing books a decade ago to preserve them. Funding from Google allows the 28 libraries it's working with to cut their digitizing costs because they don't have to pay for scanning the books Google wants to include in Book Search.

Through Book Search, users can track down a book on any topic they're interested in and read a small portion. If the book's not protected by copyright, users can download the whole thing. If it is, or if they just want to read an original, they can use Book Search to find copies to buy or borrow. More than 1 million rare or fragile books have been digitized through the Google-Michigan partnership since it began in 2004, with an estimated 6 million to go.

"There's going to be a lot of untold stories and untold anecdotes," said Will Weisser, Sentinel's associate publisher. "But the other part is the governor's vision for the future of American politics and society and what should we be working towards? How does the (Republican) party become more unified?"

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The publishing company wouldn't say how much Huckabee will be paid. Weisser acknowledged that they've agreed to the book at a time when Huckabee's political future is uncertain. The former governor recently formed a political action committee to raise money for McCain and other Republicans, and has also been mentioned as a potential running mate for the Arizona senator.

"We kind of had to think about that because obviously it's possible he could be the running mate," Weisser said. "It could certainly be hard to do a traditional book promotion if he's the vice president-elect. But some people here have pointed out that that's a nice problem to have."

Disney said the book will focus particularly on the guidance of Cyrus' mother, Leticia. "I am so excited to let fans in on how important my relationship with my family is to me," the 15-year-old singer-actress said in a statement. "I hope to motivate mothers and daughters to build lifetimes of memories together and inspire kids around the world to live their dreams."

The Disney Book Group, in a clear bit of synergy for the Walt Disney Co., has world rights to the book. Disney said Cyrus' book will feature previously unseen photos, family stories and "a look at her inner circle of loved ones." The book, the first by Cyrus, will be published under the Disney-Hyperion Books imprint.

President Bush's proposed 2009 budget eliminates all the funding for Reading Is Fundamental's book distribution program that has, since 1966, provided more than 325 million books to more than 30 million underprivileged children.

"With 13 million children living in poverty in this country, the need for RIF has never been greater," said RIF CEO/president Carol Rasco. The annually funded RIF program is currently approved through September 2009, but if Bush's budget is approved, 4.6 million children will not receive 16 million free books the following year. RIF, the oldest and largest children's and family nonprofit literacy organization in the U.S, has been funded by Congress and six Administrations without interruption since 1975.

"With a recent report showing a declining interest in reading among adults and teens, supporting children's literacy is critical to reversing this trend," said Rasco. "We received $26.6 million in federal funding in 2007 and we're requesting $26 million this year," said Frank Walter, RIF's director of marketing/PR, adding that 75% of funds are provided by federal grants and 25% is raised locally by RIF’s 19,000 volunteer outlets that distribute books at childcare centers, schools and migrant work programs. Ninety percent of the organization's funds go to purchasing new books for lower income children and for motivational reading activities that take place during RIF's book distribution.

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Author James Patterson's recent blog post urged fans to visit RIF's site and voice their concerns. "RIF, if you don't know, is one of the pioneers of kid-directed book distribution programs," Patterson wrote. "I've already reached out. Do you think you might take a couple minutes to reach out to your congresspersons? Infusing a love of books in our own kids is challenging enough.... imagine how hard it is to do in families without our resources and level of education."

Reps for JKR have now confirmed to TLC that there will indeed be an extract of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows contained in this new book, along with two new illustrations of the story from author and artist Quentin Blake. Along with the contribution from Jo, others such as Philip Pullman and Jacqueline Wilson are contributing to the birthday book for The Prince of Wales, with new material due from Philip Ardagh and Anthony Horowitz. In addition to the new illustrations from Quentin Blake, other artists contributing are Axel Scheffler, Posy Simmonds and Emily Gravett. The Birthday Book will be published on November 6, with all proceeds to benefit The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts, a charity which”provides schoolchildren with opportunities to visit theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries."

Vander Ark wiped away tears when he was asked to reflect on what the case has done to his relationship with the community of Harry Potter fans. The former middle school librarian, who fell in love with the books in the late 90s and has devoted years to studying them and indexing their content online, could barely speak. "It's been ... it's been," he stammered, choking on his words. "It's been difficult because there has been a lot of criticism, obviously, and that was never the intention. ... This has been an important part of my life for the last nine years or so."

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During his testimony Tuesday, Vander Ark acknowledged that he, too, had substantial concerns all along about whether publishing an encyclopedia based on Rowling's Potter universe would constitute copyright infringement. He said he was talked into doing it by the publishing company.