Charles Webb announced today that he’s signed a $56,000 deal for Home School, the sequel to the 1963 novel The Graduate.

A number of books went on sale today. To start with, Dark Side of the Moon (pictured) by Sherrilyn Kenyon, a romantic fantasy novel in the Dark-Hunter series. It’s published by St. Martin’s Press, with a reported printing of 200,000.

Then there’s a western, Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry, and a detective mystery, The Cold Moon (Jeffery Deaver).

Finally, there were three thrillers released–a short story collection dubbed simply Thriller and edited by James Patterson (received a starred Publisher’s Weekly review); Blow the House Down, a political thriller by Robert Baer; and Killer Dreams by Johansen Iris.

John Ezard of Guardian Unlimited Books writes in an article published today that the Le Prince Maurice literary prize was awarded to Becoming Strangers, “a novel about terminal illness set in a luxury Caribbean hotel” that’s written by Louise Dean.

Martin Morse Wooster writes in an article posted today on washingtonpost.com that while there are plenty of science fiction novels about the distant future, few authors now attempt to depict what it will be like in the next twenty-five to fifty years.

Historically, science fiction writers haven’t been all that great at predicting the near future, he notes - authors from the seventies were expecting stronger rockets and weaker computers today.

Ludhiana Newsline reports that after the Da Vinci Code movie was banned in India’s northern state of Punjab, sales of the book have shot up again, almost doubling in one store. Dinesh Sharma of Book Cafe speculates that it will continue to boost sales.

Meanwhile, today’s issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer says that copies of the book and pirated DVD’s of the movie were burned in Manila yesterday.

What with everything I’ve read in the past few years, the burning of books is starting to seem almost commonplace. I don’t think much of it, except perhaps to take note and read the book if I haven’t already. But movies - and illegally pirated copies, at that?

Am I the only one who thinks it’s strange?

‘Leading US expert’ Professor James Garbarino told The Daily Telegraph that fictional characters like Hermione from the Harry Potter books may be partly responsible for making girls more violent.

The article notes that Professor Garbarino has advised the FBI. (Oh my, that explains a lot. Sorry - couldn’t resist.)

USA Today recently caught up with seven novelists, including Stephen King, and asked them to share some of the books they plan to read this summer. The results were compiled into an article that was released several days ago.