News Bits, In Brief

Sniff, sniff. No, that's not the sound of someone crying. It's the sound of Keith Richards celebrating. According to TheObserver.com, Richards' autobiography is said to be the hottest book up for auction this summer. Publishers Harper Collins and Little, Brown are presently the leading bidders. The current marker? $7.1 million.

Authors looking to tour something besides bookstores and Wal-Marts are now visiting the offices of multi-million dollar corporations. Microsoft, Starbucks, Yahoo and Google are some of the US companies offering regular book events for employees. (We're never gonna get our class war, are we?)

What's the one thing on an airplane that's germier than the complimentary pillow and blanket? It might be the book that you just bought in the terminal! The Chicago Sun Times has announced that Powell's Books is now buying and selling used books at three of their international airport locations. Store manager Martin Barrett says, ''A lot of airport employees and airline crew members take advantage of this, but if a passenger shows up with a suitcase full of books to swap, that's fine, too." I read somewhere that Maxim and Penthouse are the two top selling magazines in airports. I really hope that they're not selling those secondhand, too.