Books

baltimoresun.com/10spot -Many beloved literary figures, including Edgar Allan Poe, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Rachel Carson, have left their marks in Maryland. Here are the best places to relive a bit of bookish history. Fort McHenry. Francis Scott Key's poem, "The Defence of Fort McHenry," was inspired by the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, but it would take more than a century for it to be officially recognized as our national anthem, renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner." Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum (203 N. Amity St.)

Think you're fortunate because you've snagged a copy of "Fortunate Son," the recalled George W. Bush biography from St. Martin's Press?Think again.Although Internet auctions are asking -- and, in some cases, getting -- prices upward of $50, those who deal in rare books doubt the tome will have any long-term value.Besides, you could still buy it at Borders at the list price of $25.95 this week, although the Michigan-based chain is expected to comply soon with St. Martin's recall, as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

SHE CLAIMS TO HAVE read a thousand books, many of them more than once. She's written one book, "Bloody Fingers," and is planning a sequel, "Bloody Fingers: The Ghost's Revenge." She plunges eagerly into an interview, fidgeting with her hair, swinging jean-clad legs beneath the adult chair in the principal's office, jumping up to demonstrate how a ghost flies. Her mother calls her precociousness "scary." Her teacher marvels at "how well she expresses herself through her reading and writing."

WASHINGTON - The large, extravagant handwriting has more ruffles and curlicues than a Christmas package, and it practically shouts self-confidence: "Thys Boke If Myne." This book is mine. And then he signs it, with a capital "P" for "Prince" so tall and plump that it dwarfs all the other letters on the page - as he seems to have believed that he dwarfed all other mortals. Could any inscription be more revealing? Could it possibly tell us more about the personality of that budding adolescent who later would become England's King Henry VIII?

English actor Christopher “Kit” Harington, 25, has gone from a virtual unknown to international heartthrob in the course of a year, due to his role as Jon Snow on the HBO hit show “Game of Thrones.” In this Q&A, he talks about power, the rain in Northern Ireland, and how he dislikes the show being called “The Sopranos of Middle Earth.” Had you read the books before you were cast in the show? I hadn't read the books. I got this pilot, though, and I read it. I knew it was HBO, so I knew it would be of a certain quality.

Sad news today -- Jeffrey Zaslow, who wrote such popular non-fiction as "The Last Lecture" and "The Girls from Ames," died today in a car crash in Michigan. The Wall Street Journal, where he has worked as a reporter, said that he died after losing control of his car while driving on a snowy road and colliding with a truck. He was 53, the Journal said. Zaslow's biggest hit was as co-author of "The Last Lecture," an inspirational tale of Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor who soldiered on while facing pancreatic cancer that would kill him. "The Girls from Ames," detailed a decades-long friendship among a group of women, and was a favorite of books clubs nationwide.

For the privilege of wielding a razor on Dublin Elementary School Principal Michael Steeg's beard, fifth-grader Jon Boggs, 10, read 125 books; fourth-grader Scott Rakowski, 9, read 121 books; and second-grader Michael Conrad, 8, read 124 books.Above, Conrad takes the razor to his principal's chin. At right, Sally Bunce, the PTA president,gives Steeg a sign and a crown to commemorate the event.Steeg, principal at Dublin for exactly a year, thought it was so important for his students to read he issued a challenge Jan. 7: Steeg bet his 280 students they couldn't read 2,500 books before March 7.As you can see from the pictures, the students won the bet. They read 5,762 books -- more than twice the number needed to win. The three students who read the most books collected on the bet Monday.

Baltimore children's author Jane Leslie Conly doesn't necessarily believe in happy endings, for herself or for her characters. But she does believe in handy ones. She'd never devise a sunny finale just to make the lives of the children and animals in her books easy. Instead, she believes in endings that function like fine tools. She believes in taking materials that are splintered or corroded and crafting them into something useful, sturdy and, therefore, beautiful. "I don't write happily-ever-after," Conly says, from the kitchen of her home in the Radnor-Winston neighborhood.

Thirteen-year-old Alexander Williams was always so reluctant to read that his school arranged to get him special help. But he felt differently about the stories when they were told on a big screen. Most people who love the films begin with the books. But for Alex, the process worked the other way around. When he was finally forced to page through J.K. Rowling's novels to fulfill a class assignment, the characters in the novels took on added life in his imagination. "Alex was completely enthralled, to where he would not put the book down," said his mother, Erin Riley of Belcamp.

Kudos to the librarian in Harford County who wouldn't approve stocking "50 Shades of Grey" ("Harford librarian stands by her rejection of '50 Shades,'" June 5). I like to read mysteries and adventure books and checked one out to read. It was horrible, smutty stuff, providing in vivid detail the life of a male convict and all the degradation and humiliation suffered by one. But it was fiction, not real life. And the details of what happened in the showers were so gross I quit reading it. I returned it and asked to speak to the head librarian.