Today in books and publishing: News Corp. now wants to merge HarperCollins with Simon & Schuster; Sandy ruined 9,000 books in a New York store; you'll never guess which two series have sold the most Kindle books.
Rupert Murdoch doesn't want to let the rumored Penguin and Random House merger happen so easily, so he's put in a last minute bid to buy Penguin for $1.6 billion. In Cash.
Today in books and publishing: Depp to publish "authentic" books; a female version of Holden Caulfield; the First Amendment protects phone books; a Chinese writer receives a prestigious German prize.
Today in books and publishing: Dennis Rodman writes a children's book; doubts cast about Ryszard Kapuściński; Gore Vidal dies; another seven-figure Twilight fan fiction book deal.
Today in books and publishing: Details from the upcoming David Foster Wallace biography are trickling in; Neil Gaiman inks a multi-book deal with HarperCollins; fantasy author wreaks viral vengeance on e-book pirate; remembering E.B. White's sense of humor on his 113th birthday.
Today in books: Buzz Bissinger returns to Odessa, how to fix the Pulitzer voting process, and the 'S--- Girls Say' meme is declared book-deal worthy.
Today in publishing and literature: the 2009 Man Booker winner is getting a sequel, Quentin Rowan explains his plagiarized spy novel, and Bill O'Reilly says his Killing Lincoln only has two major historical inaccuracies.
Today in publishing: Amazon Publishing snags another big name, the chairman of next year's Man Booker Prize panel comes with "impeccable bookish credentials," and Jonathan Lethem is still smarting over a bad review he got in 2003.
Today in publishing: Chris Matthews writes his own books, HarperCollins has many, many soccer memoirs, and Michele Bachmann hawks her book to help her campaign.
Robert Caro's fourth volume of his massive Lyndon Johnson biography is coming out in May, Bill O'Reilly will be writing a biography of a president-to-be-determined, and some valuable advice for National Novel Writing Month.
1Q84 arrives in stores in the U.S., three leading publishers make it clear they don't want Casey Anthony's memoir, and more hand-wringing over Amazon Publishing.
Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography tops the digital and print sales charts, JRR Tolkien's newly-unearthed illustrations for The Hobbit will be seen for the first time, and Roland Emmerich's new Shakespeare authorship thriller gets fact-checked.
Also: Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography traces the origins of his black turtleneck
Plus: Courtney Love sold a memoir to HarperCollins
Plus: Ebooks are now moving in on author signing sessions
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