"Eragon,'' the movie, opens today with a tepid review in the Boston Globe by Wesley Morris. Meanwhile, "Eragon,'' the book by Christopher Paolini, is the No. 1 children's bestseller on the New England Independent Booksellers Association's weekly list.

What's interesting is how the fantasy novel (originally self-published by a teenager in Montana) got picked up by Knopf. Apparently, Carl Hiaasen's stepson, who wasn't much of a reader, loved the book when his mom made him read it after she picked it up in a bookstore while they were on vacation in Montana. Hiaasen called his editor and the rest is history, he tells Powells bookstore.

Kitty Kelley

So Kitty Kelley is now going to write a biography of Oprah Winfrey. The unnamed and unscheduled book will be published by Crown, a division of the Random House empire. Her 2004 book about the Bush family, which alleged that President George H. W. Bush had had affairs, that President George W. Bush had snorted cocaine at Camp David, and that Laura Bush had smoked and sold dope in college, was published by Doubleday, the more respectable Random House imprint. Crown is definitely a comedown: Its lead spring title is "And Baby Makes Three: The Six-Step Plan for Preserving Marital Intimacy and Rekindling Romance After Baby Arrives." Maybe Doubleday -- a very serious list -- didn't want Kelley running down the neighborhood.

Kelley has written a series of celebrity biographies over the years, usually filled with startling allegations attributed to anonymous sources, such as that Nancy Reagan had had an affair with Frank Sinatra and that Elizabeth Taylor had aborted a pregnancy by Sinatra. Her Bush cocaine allegations were never substantiated, by her or anyone else, and her reporting methods have been called into question. (Her answers when I questioned her did not inspire confidence. Here is my 2004 story.) Time and Newsweek refused to give the Bush book any serious coverage, and even Larry King rejected her as a guest.

Perhaps this book will be a long fan letter, but I doubt it. If past books are an indication, Kelley will write that certain unimpeachable sources have told her that Oprah Winfrey has done any number of scandalous things in her life. Winfrey won't be able to disprove the allegations, because Kelley's account will lack details as to time and place and the sources will be hidden from other reporters. And Winfrey won't be able to win a libel suit, because she's a public figure.

If I were Random House or Kitty Kelley, however, I would not want Oprah Winfrey for an enemy. She could bring on her show all the people who have been attacked or offended by Kelley's books, including some who might offer a few true tales about the author, and turn the women of America against her for keeps. And there might never be another Random House author picked for Oprah's Book Club.

Downloads of The Iraq Study Group Report are outpacing sales of the 84-page report in book form 40:1. (Locally, the book is the No. 1 nonfiction paperback book on the bestseller list below.)

While the report has been downloaded for free a total of 1.6 million times (from the U.S. Institute of Peace and the James A. Baker Institute websites), about 38,000 copies of the $10.95 book were sold in the week ending Dec. 10. Random House published the book on Dec. 6, the same day it became available online.

1 THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, by Clement C. Moore. Various illustrators. (Various publishers.)
2 MERRY CHRISTMAS, CURIOUS GEORGE, by Cathy Hapka. Illustrated by Mary O’Keefe Young. (Houghton Mifflin)
3 OUR 50 STATES, by Lynne Cheney. Illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. (Simon & Schuster)
4 SANTA CLAUS, by Rod Green. Illustrated by Jon Lucas et al. (Atheneum)
5 FANCY NANCY, by Jane O'Connor. Illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. (HarperCollins)

Source: NY Times

1. The Audacity of Hope
By Barack Obama. Crown.
2. Moving the Chains
By Charles P. Pierce. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
3. Mayflower
By Nathaniel Philbrick. Viking.
4. I Feel Bad About My Neck
By Nora Ephron. Knopf.
5. Palestine
By Jimmy Carter. Simon & Schuster.
6. I Like You
By Amy Sedaris. Warner.
7. The Omnivore’s Dilemma
By Michael Pollan. Penguin.
8. Joy of Cooking
By Irma S. Rombauer et al. Scribner.
9. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
By Bill Bryson. Broadway.
10. Barefoot Contessa at Home
By Ina Garten. Clarkson Potter.

1. Against the Day
By Thomas Pynchon. Penguin.
2. Nature Girl
By Carl Hiaasen. Knopf.
3. The View From Castle Rock
By Alice Munro. Knopf.
4. Hannibal Rising
By Thomas Harris. Delacorte.
5. Cross
By James Patterson. Little, Brown.
6. Next
By Michael Crichton. HarperCollins.
7. For One More Day
By Mitch Albom. Hyperion.
8. The Emperor’s Children
By Claire Messud. Knopf.
9. The Shape Shifter
By Tony Hillerman. HarperCollins.
10. Wild Fire
By Nelson DeMille. Warner.

1. The Iraq Study Group Report
By James A. Baker III et al. Vintage.
2. The Places in Between
By Rory Stewart. Harvest.
3. Dreams From My Father
By Barack Obama. Three Rivers.
4. Team of Rivals
By Doris Kearns Goodwin. Simon & Schuster.
5. 1491
By Charles C. Mann. Vintage.
6. 1776
By David McCullough. Simon & Schuster.
7. Clueless George Goes to War
By Pat Bagley. White Horse.
8. The Glass Castle
By Jeannette Walls. Scribner.
9. Holidays on Ice
By David Sedaris. Back Bay.
10. A Grateful Heart
Edited by M.J. Ryan. Conari.

1. The Inheritance of Loss
By Kiran Desai. Grove.
2. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
By Kim Edwards. Penguin.
3. Snow
By Orhan Pamuk. Vintage.
4. On Beauty
By Zadie Smith. Penguin.
5. The History of Love
By Nicole Krauss. Norton.
6. The Sea
By John Banville. Vintage.
7. March
By Geraldine Brooks. Viking.
8. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
By Lisa See. !,Random House.
9. The Lighthouse
By P..D. James. Vintage.
10. The Night Watch
By Sarah Waters. Riverhead.

With some writers, you wonder if they will ever complete a projected book, and some never do. But after six volumes, nobody wonders about J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter novels. There's one more book to go, and Rowling has let the word be known that it will contain new sorrows. But no one knows exactly when the book will be finished.

But that's no reason not to start selling. Borders Books & Music this week began taking potential orders for the book with no title and no publication date -- surely another of the many firsts for this remarkable series, which has virtually redefined children's literature. We say "potential" because no money changes hands -- you just put your name in to be notified "as soon as the book is available for pre-order."

So many literary magazines, so little time, as my colleague David Mehegan points out below. Recently I came across Quick Fiction, celebrating its fifth anniversary. The local journal publishes stories under 500 words. Ron Carlson, who has had stories published in The New Yorker and "The Best American Short Stories," has a story in the most recent issue of Quick Fiction about a dog who weighs the literary merits of the books he has eaten.

Beware the dogged librarian.

What can one thoughtful woman on a mission accomplish? Plenty, if the woman was Mayme Clayton. It turns out that the little-known Clayton, a college librarian who died in October at age 83, spent decades quietly compiling one of the nation's most significant collections of African-American history.

Storing her finds in various locations in Los Angeles and (shudder) in her damp garage (where much of it still sits), her collection includes:

-- The only known signed copy of "Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral" by Boston's Phillis Wheatley, the first book published in America by a black author, and dating to 1773.
-- Letters and first editions from Harlem Renaissance writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes.
-- America's first abolitionist journal, "The African Repository," dating from 1830 - 1845, and a complete set.

She also had a huge collection of African-American films, movie posters, magazines, and original documents such as slave bills. Southern California historians are now racing to safeguard her collection, and are thrilled that her son supports their efforts. You can read a whimsical Washington Post story about this delightful librarian (in her later years, she liked to e-mail dirty jokes) and her achievements here.

I understand exactly how John Wronoski, owner of Lame Duck Books of Cambridge, felt when he discovered that the "stolen" Jorge Luis Borges manuscripts were right there in the store all along. I feel sure that on the top of my desk, if I dig down far enough, I will find interview transcripts and documents, maybe even winning lottery tickets, from years ago, buried under piles of books and papers. In fact, if I dig deep enough, I may even find a piece of paper from 1969, when I was a copyboy, with a coffee-and-bagel order from the city editor.

It all reminds me of the theme of "The Purloined Letter": the valuable document hidden in plain sight. The positive message seems to be that Lame Duck is such a messy place that no thief could find anything of value, at least without a lot of rummaging.

Want to read what your neighbor is reading -- about losing weight?

Health and diet bestsellers for New England, Nov. 26-Dec. 2, based on sales at Barnes & Noble stores and Barnes & Noble.com:

1. "You, On a Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management,'' by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz (Free Press, hardcover)

2. "You, the Owner's Manual: An Insider's Guide to the Body That Will Make You Healthier and Younger,'' by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz (HarperCollins, hardcover)

3. "French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, and Pleasure,'' by Mireille Guiliano (Knopf, hardcover)

4. "Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss,'' by Mark Hyman (Scribner, hardcover)

5. "The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss,'' by Arthur Agatston (St. Martin's, paperback)

...Alfred Crosby's great 1996 book, "The Measurement of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600." Crosby, professor of history emeritus at the University of Texas, lives part of the year on Nantucket.

From the title, this little book, available in paperback from Cambridge University Press, sounds like it might be a ponderous academic tome, but it's actually a brightly written, witty, fast-moving explanation of how the arts of measurement -- tools for grasping reality in discrete pieces rather than as a continuous whole -- made possible the worldwide reach of European civilization.

The chapter on music tells how how and why musical notation, the measurement of units of time, not only notes but the silences between notes (which we know as rests), grew partly out of the uncontrolled experiments of practical musicans in the Middle Ages. It started with solemn church music, but even then, the equivalent of pop music sneaked in through the side door. Crosby describes an anonymous choral motet in three parts, written in about 13th century in Paris: "Its tenor sings a traditional chant, the middle voice glorifies the Virgin Mary, and the upper proclaims:

'God! How could I leave life in Paris with my comrades? Never for good, they are so delightful. For when they are all gathered together, each one sets himself to laugh and play and sing.'"

All of which suggests again that nothing good happens without a modicum of fun.

The oh-so-short hunt is over.

Lame Duck Books in Cambridge, which had just reported two manuscripts by novelist Jorge Luis Borges missing (and prompting an international search that included Interpol), found them today at the store, apparently simply improperly filed. The antiquarian bookseller valued the manuscripts at upwards of $1 million. I don't feel so bad now about misplacing my car keys.

All through the year, the Little Magazines arrive. These are the literary reviews, most of them published in, and sometimes with, funding from colleges. The public knows nothing about them, and you don't usually see them in bookstores. But they are loaded with short fiction, poetry, and sometimes photography, and are often the medium in which the work of the best and most successful fiction writers first appears. Most of them belong to the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. A good online index is found here. Some of the best around the country are Ontario Review (actually published at Princeton), Paris Review, Antioch, Hanging Loose, Kenyon Review, Gettysburg Review, to name a few.

No matter how many one might mention, some will be missed. So, with apologies to the overlooked, Massachusetts-based literary magazines include Ploughshares (the winter issue just arrived, edited by Rosanna Warren), WHLReview, Button, Boston Review (not to be confused with:), Boston Book Review, Worcester Review, South Boston Literary Gazette, AGNI Review, Massachusetts Review, and Fulcrum. Let attention be paid.

Dec 17

SUNDAY: Howie Carr discusses "The Brothers Bulger," at 3 p.m., at Book Ends, 559 Main St., Winchester.

(Others are on holiday break.)

Harvard professor Helen Vendler's comment yesterday in the New York Times Review of Books that she seldom reviews poets under 50 is getting a rise out of poets on both sides of 50.

The next to last paragraph in a long profile:
Today Vendler seldom reviews poets under 50, since their “frames of reference,” she says, are alien to her. “They’re writing about the television cartoons they saw when they were growing up. And that’s fine. It’s as good a resource of imagery as orchards. Only I’ve seen orchards and I didn’t watch these cartoons,” she said. “So I don’t feel I’m the best reader for most of the young ones.”

You can hear the frustration in 51-year-old Doug Holder's post on his Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene blog:
"As a major reviewer I think she should be better informed about poets under 50. This seems very dismissive to me. I mean she writes about poets in the 1700's, etc. ... She must of studied the milieu back then. Then why not pay some attention to the younger poets. Ah! The academy.''

Jennifer Bartlett writes on her blog that the only poet she knows of who writes about TV is Robert Pinsky, who is over 50 and moves in Vendler's circle. Vendler, by the way, is 73.