It’s Labor Day weekend and hopefully you’ll get out, have some fun and enjoy the last hurrah for summer…

Publishing is still in some limbo – Ron Burkle and Len Riggio continue to fight over the future of Barnes and Noble. More and more e-readers are coming onto the market, and there is now an e-reader priced under $100. What will the holidays bring in terms of price wars? It’s bound to be good for consumers. Meanwhile, Borders has had some layoffs and has stopped speaking to the media, apparently. The future of this bookstore chain has also been subject to much speculation, and its foray into selling e-readers and partnership with Build-A-Bear will be interesting to watch to see if it can turn things around.

There’s more back and forth over whether e-readers are the death of publishing or its salvation. Our conventional wisdom is: neither; e-readers represent another way to sell books.

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There’s also a brouhahaha over the New York Times and its supposed love of Jonathan Franzen and other white male authors at the expense of women authors, but it’s hard to put Franzen in the same boat as Jodi Picoult who writes more mainstream, less literary books (as much as we enjoy her work). But we’ll say that any debate involving books (over, say: reality TV “stars,” and the like) is a good thing to take up headlines. For fun, check out Chick Lit versus Dude Lit, http://bit.ly/ah7yDF.

Finally: Knowledge is power: Read a banned book today, in honor of Banned Books Week, September 25-October 2, 2010! http://bit.ly/9KKcsm.

So, let’s look at some highlights of the week that was:

* 12 favorite non-book literary oddities on e-Bay, http://bit.ly/aI3k3P.

* ‘Dora The Explorer Book: Over 50 Million Copies Sold As Series Turns 10,’ http://huff.to/blUSYr.

* PC World looks at the next wave of e-readers coming soon, http://bit.ly/duNKzU.

* ‘To Self-Publish or Not to Self-Publish’ – very useful breakdown of the pros and cons, http://huff.to/8YJbHf.

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* ‘Ron Charles Takes 60 Seconds to Save Book Reviewing,’ by using video, http://bit.ly/b4qAAW.

* ‘Fall Books 2010 Highlights: Who Made The Cut?’ http://huff.to/bGukuy.

* ‘Next Generation of E-Readers Could Be Flexible,’ http://bit.ly/a2yswY.

* Try the weird words quiz – recognize any of these? http://bit.ly/byUpM7.

* Catchy concepts in kids’ books (love these covers!) http://bit.ly/bxd9n4.

* Staples will start selling Amazon’s Kindle, http://bit.ly/9EQRCy.

* ‘Borders Slashes E-Reader Prices to $99,’ http://bit.ly/acA0Rq.

* ‘10 Facts About Books You Won’t Read in a Book About Books’ – fun video, http://bit.ly/bpSAUC.

* Stephenson and Bear Release ‘social Book’ a digital novel titled The Mongoliad, http://bit.ly/dcbM2z.

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* Does a book’s popularity guarantee its movie’s success? http://bit.ly/dwwUYN.

* ‘Cool fall books: Warm up with these reads,’ http://bit.ly/9G8hev.

* ‘The 11 Worst Memoir Covers Ever,’ Some of these are fun to look at! http://huff.to/9TdeBq.

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