Celebrate Banned Books Week, Sept. 27-Oct. 3, by reading a "challenged" book.

The Top "banned" books on Yahoo! this week are:

1. "Harry Potter" (Series) (J.K. Rowling)

2. "Gossip Girl" (series) (Cecily von Ziegesar)

3. "To Kill a Mockingbird" (Harper Lee)

4. "Goosebumps" (Series) (R.L. Stine)

5. "The Outsiders" (S.E. Hinton)

6. "Lord of the Flies" (William Golding)

7. "Where's Waldo" (Martin Hanford)

8. "Of Mice and Men" (John Steinbeck)

9. "The Catcher in the Rye" (J.D. Salinger)

10. "Jumper" (Steven Gould)

11. "Bridge to Terabithia" (Katherine Paterson)

12. "Junie B. Jones" (Series) (Barbara Park)

13. "The Giver" (Lois Lowry)

14. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (Mark Twain)

15. "Captain Underpants" (Dav Pilkey)

16. "Flowers for Algernon" (Daniel Keyes)

17. "Brave New World" (Aldous Huxley)

18. "American Psycho" (Bret Easton Ellis)

19. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (Ken Kesey)

20. "The Lovely Bones" (Alice Sebold)

21. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (Maya Angelou)

22. "James and the Giant Peach" (Roald Dahl)

23. "The Things They Carried" (Tim O'Brien)

24. "Go Ask Alice" (anonymous)

25. "A Time to Kill" (John Grisham)

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In Baltimore

The Baltimore Book Festival, featuring dozens of authors and booksellers, will be held next week in the city's Mt. Vernon neighborhood. Hours are 5 to 9 p.m. Sept. 26, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 27 and 28 along the 600 block of North Charles Street.The roster of authors includes Bishop T.D. Jakes, Naomi Wolf, Walter Mosley, Daniel Mark Epstein, Omar Tyree, Ron Suskind and Sweet Potato Queen Jill Connor Browne among others.For details and event schedule, click wwwbaltimorebookfestival.com

In Washington

The 2008 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, will be held 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 27 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 3rd and 7th streets (rain or shine). The event is free and open to the public.The festival will feature more than 70 award-winning authors, poets and illustrators.Authors at the festival will sign copies of their works for festival-goers, and children can meet storybook and television characters.For details, call (888) 714-4696 or visit www.loc.gov/bookfest.

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Novelist/essayist David Foster Wallace, 46, was found dead in his California home after apparently hanging himself Friday.

He had been teaching English and creative writing at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. His best known work is probably the inventive "Infinite Jest" (1996), which he once told Salon magazine was an effort to describe America as it approached the millennium.

"There's something particularly sad about it," he said, in a comment that might be viewed as a clue to the circumstances of his death. But he also cited fiction as a way of overcoming what he called "this existential lostness in the real world," the Washington Post reports.

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The Book Nook will sell gently used books from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 20. The shop is located in the former Red Lion Country Club on Country Club Road in Red Lion. A supply of old Red Lion yearbooks will be available. Donations of good, clean used books will be accepted during the sale. All proceeds benefit the Kaltreider-Benfer Library.

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East Berlin Community Library will hold its annual book sale during Colonial Day, Sept. 13, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Sale tables will be set up outside the library at 105 Locust St. Parking will be available behind the library for $3 a car.

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Writers of original science fiction are invited to submit entries on the theme, "Yesterday, I
Will" in a science fiction writing contest.

"All sentient species of the known universe" are eligible to submit entries, according to the official rules.

Entries may be original works of poetry, one-act plays or short stories of up to 5,000 words. Deadline is Sept. 15.

The winning entries will be included in an anthology to be published by Fortress Publishing, Inc. of Harrisburg.

For contest rules, entry forms and details, click here .

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By BETH VRABEL
For the York Sunday News

What do a literature professor, a bookstore owner and a former librarian have in common? In addition to knowing a thing or two about books, they are often asked for recommendations from other readers.

Here are some favorite titles, recommended by those who've made a career out of knowing what constitutes good reading.

Our readers are: Colbey Emmerson Reid, York College assistant professor of modern
literature; Irene Ritson, owner of Recycled Reader Used Bookstore in York; and Suzy Hershey, former Village Library librarian and member of two local book clubs.

From short stories to fill up a free afternoon to fine literature to come back to again and again, here are some titles to add to your collection, and a few gift ideas for other readers in your life. Their picks:

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Barnes&Noble.com has added three new features to its Barnes & Noble Studio multimedia site that are well worth a look.

In Guest Books, found out what writers read as authors talk about their top three favorite books. David Sedaris is featured this week.

5 Books selects five titles that will help readers sharpen their skills on a particular topic. Read all about wine.

The Book Files tells the story behind the book. This week’s featured book is James Joyce’s “The Dubliners.” Upcoming are Jerzy Kosinski’s “The Steps” and Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham.”

Visit http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-studio/videos-podcasts/index.asp?.

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As a woman of a certain age, and struggling to keep fitting into the clothes I own, the title of the collection of short stories by Elizabeth Berg caught my eye. "The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted, And Other Small Acts of Liberation" just says it all to me.

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