When V.P. candidate Sarah Palin (pictured here with a fish) first became mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she had asked the city librarian about the possibility of banning library books. The librarian refused to censor the collection, and a few months later was fired. Many more details flying about here and here.

Along similar lines, the rapidly-selling Sarah Palin biography Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down, begins with a very telling sentence: “Honesty became a non-negotiable family standard.”

San Francisco author Kaui Hart Hemmings interviewed by New York Times today.

If you didn’t happen to catch screenings of Paperback Dreams, a new documentary about the struggle of Bay Area independent bookstores Cody’s and Kepler’s, the website and trailer is here, and an interview with the filmmaker is here.

What to do with all those books that you don’t anticipate reading again? Marilyn vos Savant from Parade magazine has a novel suggestion: sell them back to a used bookstore. What an idea!