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An interview with author Ayelet Waldman of the book "A Really Good Day" is presented. Topics discussed by Waldman include the books on her night stand, the last book that made her laugh, and the genres that she enjoys reading and avoids. She also discusses the last book that made her furious, her preference on reading whether on paper or electronic, and on how she organize her books.

THE PAIN CHRONICLES: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing, and the Science of Suffering, by Melanie Thernstrom (Picador, $17.) This expansive mix of medical reportage, history and memoir explores our relationship to pain -- from the horrors of surgery before anesthesia to today's subtler problems of misdiagnosis. Thernstrom also reflects on her own battle with a degenerative spinal condition. MAN IN THE WOODS, by Scott Spencer (Ecco/HarperCollins, $14.99.) Spencer's 10th novel revisits Kate Ellis, the seething alcoholic of ''A Ship Made of Paper'' (2003). Now a successful self-help writer, Kate lives in a rural town with her daughter and Paul, a man of deep convictions. But their serenity is imperiled after a chance encounter leads to an irrevocable act of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Podcast Scheduled for this week: Jane Goodall and the authors of two new children's books about her life, speaking with Pamela Paul; an interview with the writer Geoff Dyer; Julie Bosman with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-/seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. ExcerptsSelections from ''To End All Wars,'' by Adam Hochschild; ''The Paper Garden,'' by Molly Peacock; and other books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE DEATH OF THE ADVERSARY,by Hans Keilson. Translated by Ivo Jarosy. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; paper, $14.)COMEDY IN A MINOR KEY, by Hans Keilson. Translated by Damion Searls. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $22.) These two novels, set in Nazi-occupied Europe, are midcentury masterpieces by the centenarian Keilson, who was in the Dutch resistance. SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY, by Gary Shteyngart (Random House, $26.) Exhilarating prose illuminates the horrors of a future America in this satire. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Martin Cruz Smith on his new novel, ''Three Stations''; Sara Ivry on Suzanne Rivecca's ''Death Is Not an Option''; Julie Bosman with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Jennifer Egan, author of ''A Visit From the Goon Squad''; Christopher Hitchens on ''The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ,'' by Philip Pullman; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Baz Dreisinger on the life of Bob Marley; Nicholas Confessore on two new books about Eliot Spitzer; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Ted Conover, the author of ''The Routes of Man''; The Times's Richard L. Berke on a new book about the investigation and impeachment of Bill Clinton; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Michael Scammell on his biography of Arthur Koestler; Rick Moody on Led Zeppelin; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Gregory Cowles with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are the novelist Jonathan Lethem on his new book, ''Chronic City''; Frank Bruni of The Times on William J. Mann's biography of Elizabeth Taylor; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Gregory Cowles with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Edmund White, author of ''City Boy''; Pamela Paul on ''NurtureShock''; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

LOST AND FOUND:Dan Brown's ''Lost Symbol'' enters the hardcover fiction list at No. 1, as predicted in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Federalist Papers and Season 4 of ''The X-Files.'' Can we all stop talking about him now? O.K., maybe not. One of the more titillating biographical details being bandied about in the coverage of the new release is that Brown (inset) was once in an undergraduate writing workshop at Amherst with David Foster Wallace -- who apparently failed to get him to take up footnotes. But it turns out that he was also in the same fraternity (Psi Upsilon) as another future best-selling author, Harlan Coben. After Brown, then a middling thriller writer, showed him the manuscript of ''The Da Vinci Code,'' Coben promised to help promote it, only to have the ''Da Vinci'' juggernaut block his own subsequent progress up the best-seller list. ''I called up Dan and told him I was no longer helping to promote his book,'' Coben joked to Amherst magazine. Not that it mattered: ''The Da Vinci Code'' spent 166 weeks on the hardcover list. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Nick McDonell, author of ''An Expensive Education''; Dwight Garner on a literary anniversary; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. The podcast is also broadcast in New York as ''Inside The New York Times Book Review'' on Fridays at 6:05 p.m. on WQXR 96.3 FM. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Robert Wright, author of ''The Evolution of God''; Richard N. Haass, author of ''War of Necessity, War of Choice''; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. The podcast is also broadcast in New York as ''Inside The New York Times Book Review'' on Fridays at 6:05 p.m. on WQXR 96.3 FM. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Kate Walbert, author of ''A Short History of Women''; Paul M. Barrett on books about the financial crisis; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. The podcast is also broadcast in New York as ''Inside The New York Times Book Review'' on Fridays at 6:05 p.m. on WQXR 96.3 FM. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Joanna Scott, author of ''Follow Me''; Michael Agger on ''Stealing MySpace''; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. The podcast is also broadcast in New York as ''Inside The New York Times Book Review'' on Fridays at 6:05 p.m. on WQXR 96.3 FM. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Arthur Phillips, author of ''The Song Is You''; Liesl Schillinger on ''A Fortunate Age''; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. The podcast is also broadcast in New York as ''Inside The New York Times Book Review'' on Fridays at 6:05 p.m. on WQXR 96.3 FM. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Blake Bailey on the life of John Cheever; Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, the editor of ''My Little Red Book''; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. The podcast is also broadcast in New York as ''Inside The New York Times Book Review'' on Fridays at 6:05 p.m. on WQXR 96.3 FM. Paper Cuts The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Believe it or not, there was once a ''George Steiner problem.'' Back before the economic meltdown, the nanosecond news cycle and our surprise-a-minute public life replaced reflection with the necessity of just keeping up, people argued about the merits of this fabled literary scholar, critic, essayist, amateur linguist and amateur philosopher -- as if they were debating the fate of culture in modern life. In fact, they were doing exactly that. Steiner, who turns 80 next month, has poured forth millions of words on the fate of art and literature in modern times. His central obsession is the Holocaust, and specifically the haunting fact that the Holocaust's ashes spread from high culture's Promethean fire: the civilization that produced Bach also produced Buchenwald. In books like ''Language and Silence,'' ''In Bluebeard's Castle,'' ''After Babel'' and ''Real Presences,'' and in countless magazine essays -- the recently released George Steiner at the New Yorker (New Directions, paper, $17.95) gathers 28 of the 134 articles he published in the magazine between 1966 and 1997 -- Steiner both celebrated culture's survival and questioned its value in an age of atrocity and disbelief. But his provocative lifelong inquiry into the sources of human cruelty and creation does not alone account for his controversial status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Jill Abramson, The Times's managing editor for news, made her name as an investigative reporter based in Washington, where she wrote (with Jane Mayer) ''Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas'' -- a best seller as well as a finalist for the National Book Award in 1994. In her dozen years at The Times, including three as the paper's Washington bureau chief, Abramson has continued to do her own legwork, most recently when she wrote the detailed biographical text for ''Obama: The Historic Journey,'' a new book published by The Times and Callaway. ''I relied heavily on the reporting of The Times's political team and drew on it for the spine of the narrative,'' Abramson said in an e-mail message. ''But I also went out with the candidates and made my own firsthand observations. After decades of doing pretty tough stories on big-time Democrats and Republicans, I still have quite a few sources who tell me what's going on.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are David Carr on Michael Wolff and Rupert Murdoch; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; Dana Canedy, the author of ''A Journal for Jordan''; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. PAPER CUTSThe Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

CAMERA, by Jean-Philippe Toussaint. Translated by Matthew B. Smith. (Dalkey Archive, paper, $12.95.) This Belgian novel only nods toward plot; the hero takes driving lessons, falls in love, goes on a desultory journey and grapples with mechanistic modern reality. ANNIE LEIBOVITZ AT WORK, by Annie Leibovitz. (Random House, $40.) In an unpretentious style, Leibovitz sets a convincing commentary alongside the particular photographs that taught her her lessons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Bruce Jay Friedman, the author of ''Three Balconies''; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; Alex Witchel on Christopher Plummer's memoir; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. PAPER CUTS The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast: Scheduled for this week are a discussion of the Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2008; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; Lorraine Adams on ''The Jewel of Medina''; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. PAPER CUTS: The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to have the walls of my diminutive apartment scraped and repainted, I recently had to heap all of my possessions in the center of the room. The biggest obstacle was my library. Despite what I like to think of as a rigorous ''one book in, one book out'' policy, it had begun to metastasize quietly in corners, with volumes squeezed on top of the taller cabinets and in the horizontal crannies left above the spines of books that had been properly shelved. It was time to cull. I am not a collector or a pack rat, unlike a colleague of mine who once expressed the fear that he might perish someday under a toppled pile of books and papers, like a woman whose obituary he once read. I was baffled the first time a friend explained to me that the book in my hand was his ''reading copy,'' while the ''collection copy'' resided upstairs, in some impenetrable sanctum. Having reviewed hundreds of books over the past 20-some years, I no longer subscribe to the notion that I have a vague journalistic responsibility to keep a copy of every title I have ever written about. I am not sentimental. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Podcast: Scheduled to appear this week are Christopher Buckley, author of ''Supreme Courtship''; Wesley Yang on ''Guyland''; Motoko Rich on the children's author Rick Riordan; and Dwight Garner with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host. Paper Cuts: The Book Review's blog covers books and other forms of printed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers briefs about various books and their authors. Autographed copies of the books "Bridget Jones's Diary," and "Bridget Jones's Guide to Life," by Helen Fielding are for sale. Author Eric Van Lustbader, announces that he is continuing the book series based on the character Jason Bourne created by deceased author Robert Ludlum. The diet advice book "Skinny B###h,"" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin is number 14 on the paper advice extended list.

Discusses the anticipated fate of paper-and-ink books in light of the information superhighway and the production of electronic books. The emotional quality of traditional books; Adaptation of online books to the needs of readers; Ideas for online browsing.