On tonight's AC360, Anderson Cooper did the unlikely: He made himself the subject of his "Ridiculist" segment, all because he'd previously doubted the literary talents of Jersey Shore's Snooki, who signed a second book deal today. But since Gorilla Beach won't be out until next May, Cooper instead took out a copy of Snooki's first novel, A Shore Thing, and finally gave it the dramatic reading it's always deserved.

In your wacky Wednesday media column: the phone hacking fallout predicted, a financial bright spot at the NYT Co., Tina Brown's crazy cover fails, and HuffPo afflicts the British isles.

Scientology has never been more high profile than in recent years, thanks to adherents like Tom Cruise. But the religion remains mysterious and controversial. A new book, out today, aims to peel back the mystery and reveal the truth. [io9]

That cute one you've had your eye on in the subway? She/he totally might have chatted you up, if you'd been reading a real book instead of a goddamned Kindle.

An employee from a "top six publisher" forwarded us a grotesque work of inadvertent humor: Always Judge a Book by Its Cover, a proposed memoir by noxious narcissist and career slut-shamer Nik Richie, founder of TheDirty.com. Updated.

Yesterday, reactionary parent-types lamented satirical children's book Go the Fuck to Sleep as a work of violent bigotry, imploring, "Imagine if this were written about Jews, blacks, Muslims or Latinos."

Finally, someone to suck all the joy out of best-selling satirical children's book Go the Fuck to Sleep. In a column for CNN, Karen Spears Zacharias argues that violent language and implied bigotry mean "Go the Fuck to Sleep is not funny":

Katie Roiphe, one of the leading sex-opinion-havers of American letters, is the upper crust version of crazy cat woman Andrea Peyser. While Andrea only broadcasts her psychologically-fraught Victorian sexual shame to tabloid readers, Katie Roiphe gets to publish hers in all the favorite news outlets of East Coast Ivy Leaguers. She calls male novelists fey pussies in the NYT Book Review! She told women how to do divorce right in the pages of New York magazine! She pooh-poohed the notion of date rape all over the place! And now, she's taken to Slate—the Gawker of bored academics—to reveal how jokey children's book "Go The Fuck to Sleep" reveals that "yuppie" parents (unlike Katie Roiphe) are doing sex wrong.

After much speculation, J.K. Rowling has released a video explaining what her mysterious new website, Pottermore, really is. A new book? A game? No, it's just a store.

You think the owner of that book store doesn't know what you're doing? Oh, they know exactly what you're doing. You say you "love" books? You say you enjoy perusing the soothing aisles of a book store, so lovingly curated by a book store owner who spends his or her life ensuring that the very latest and most interesting book selections are there, presented for you in the most interesting possible way? You like that a lot? Yeah. So you can go home and order that shit online. Fuckers.

Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better is a compilation of the best 121 hacks, tricks, and downloads from Lifehacker's archives. Here's a preview of what's inside, including links to past posts that informed each chapter. [Lifehacker]

The stereotype of gay men is that they all live in urban environments and prance around in designer clothing saying "fierce" and giving straight women make-overs. We all know that in reality gay men are much more diverse and mundane. Here is a real picture of what today's gay world is like.

Republican presidential candidate and history buff Michele Bachmann has signed a deal with Penguin Group USA to write a memoir. It will be called America of Heart or Rogueish Goer or My Father's Flag or The Coming Battle With the Mormon Horde or somesuch and come out this fall, roughly one year before her election as 45th president of the United States.

Park Slope parents, your salvation is cometh! You've probably been wondering to yourself, "How are we going to pay for little Maxim's $800 per hour private school tutors in a few years, what with this massive house payment on our Park Slope co-op?" Not to fear! McSweeney's is now accepting your children, for indoctrination!

Not to be outdone by the National Archives, which is releasing a redacted version of the Pentagon Papers 40 years after they were actually published, the National Security Agency today declassified a book on cryptology that was published in 1809, during the presidency of James Madison. If it had been leaked before the NSA was ready, we totally would have lost the War of 1812.

It seems that tiny showbiz dynamo Chris Colfer, gay angel of Glee, is not content ruling his small corner of Hollywood. He wants the publishing industry too. So he's inked a two-book deal with Little, Brown.

The days grow longer and the weekends more leisurely as summer approaches, making it a terrific time to catch up on reading. Here are a few helpful tips for curating your perfect reading list this summer. [Lifehacker]

Mayoral progeny, ex-boyfriend underminer, and professional equestrian Georgina Bloomberg has written a novel that draws "heavily from her own experiences" and will contain "tell-all references" about the daughter of a "blunt-talking Wall Street billionaire who lives in a Manhattan townhouse and 'owns half of New York.'"

Stop whatever it is you're doing and listen up. We bring you now a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to name what is sure to become an enduring work of American literature: the Kardashians' first book!

Liberty Media, the owner of QVC and a random assortment of other media crap, has put in a billion-dollar bid for Barnes & Noble. What does a media conglomerate want with a book store, these days?