NEW YORK -- The 60th annual National Book Awards was a night to celebrate literature and to wonder about its future.

Lifetime achievement winner Gore Vidal envisioned only pulp and dust Wednesday as he contemplated the state of books, while fellow honorary winner Dave Eggers declared that we live in a golden age. The evening's host, Andy Borowitz, joked that the meaning of publishing was "a lot of hard work. Then nothing."

As the e-book march advances, both Eggers and fiction winner Colum McCann insisted that paper texts were stronger than ever. McCann won the fiction prize for "Let the Great World Spin," a novel about daring, luck and mortality in the pre-digital world of 1970s New York.

Books will be for sale and signing following the reading. Proceeds will go to Family First Health in York for Caring Together/AIDS service.

For details, visit www.dwightmcnair.com.

VATICAN CITY -- A series of four books presented Tuesday at the Vatican seeks to explain how Michelangelo and other artists translated the Bible into images to produce in the Sistine Chapel some of the world's most renowned frescoes.

NEW YORK -- Karl Rove's memoir has a title, "Courage and Consequence," and a release date -- March 9, 2010.

Having just finished his book "Time Out of Joint," we'd like to call attention to one of our favorite authors: Philip K. Dick. Although he died almost 30 years ago, he remains one of our favorites for a few reasons.

First, he was able to turn the genre of science fiction into something more than mediocre-at-best genre fiction. He took science fiction ideas and turned them into studies of religion, philosophy and the human condition. He was not content to use science fiction to escape, but used it to explain.

Second, and we love him for this, there is no telling what will happen when you pick up his books. You can start off reading a book of his about a clear-cut situation and by the end you're traveling across planets in search of greater truth and religious insight. There are some authors that after the first chapter or two, you know exactly where the book is headed. That is not so with P.K.D.

For those two major reasons, his control over his subject matter and his ability to twist a premise into something you could never have imagined, he is one of our favorite authors of all time. So read up, because he was prolific, and enjoy.

1. "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown.
2. "Have a Little Faith" by Mitch Albom.
3. "In a Perfect World" by Laura Kasischke.
4. "True Blue" by David Baldacci.
5. "The Given Day" by Dennis Lehane.

It's no secret that I love books. They regularly make their way to my house from libraries, bookstores, friends and book sales. Maybe my bibliophile nature borders on addiction. But it's not an addiction where I am compelled to hide at home, unless I am reading of course.

Every time I venture out to one of my favorite book haunts, I quickly find that others with the same obsession. I think it stems from one inherent belief we share -- there is no such thing as having too many books.

We all know that our local York County libraries are great places to borrow books, but not everyone is aware that they are also venues to buy gently used books. Twelve of our 13 locations have some space dedicated to book sales. The prices are low, most items are $2 or less, and because of the turnover, there are usually new books each time one visits.

NEW YORK -- The future of Google's plans to scan and sell millions of books online could begin to take shape Friday.

Google Inc. and book publishers are expected to show a federal judge in New York a new settlement in the copyright lawsuit over Google's book-scanning project.

Monday had been the deadline for a new deal, but they got an extension to Friday.

The case involves Google's plans to scan millions of books and make them searchable and available for purchase online. Google reached a $125 million settlement with publishers that would give Google digital rights to the works. But the Justice Department pressed for revisions, to take into account the power Google could have over book prices as it amasses such a huge online library.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Amazon's Kindle can read books aloud, but if you're blind it can be difficult to turn that function on without help. Now two universities say they will shun the device until Amazon changes the setup.

TORONTO -- Linden MacIntyre, an investigative journalist who wrote a novel about sexual abuse by Catholic priests, has won one of Canada's most prestigious literary awards.

MacIntyre won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his book "The Bishop's Man" on Tuesday night.

More than a dozen books have been written on York County in the Civil War in the past 10 years.

Add another one: Scott Mingus' newest work "The Lousiana Tigers in the Gettysburg campaign."

For a mini-review of the book, visit: York County's Widow Zinn to Confederate Gen. Jubal Early in new Louisiana Tigers' book: 'Are you goin' to destroy us?'