Warren St. John, the dreamy NYT reporter and author of incongruous 'Bama football book Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, has a heartwarming new book about refugee soccer players that is a smash hit. Why won't his own paper review it?

Coming just on the heels of twindie (twee + indie) movie Away We Go, the film's co-writer Dave Eggers is releasing a new book. It's a non-fiction tome called Zeitoun, following a Muslim-American family during and after Hurricane Katrina.

In your torrential Tuesday media column: No rock-breaking for Current reporters, a new job for Jesse Oxfeld, more Observer layoff victims, ad spending plunges (more), and one more unnecessary Obama book TK:

Last night, James Frey met Philly fameball Arthur Kade, a character so committed to perfectly attaining the state of "douchebag" (as originally defined) that some suspect he's a performance-art hoax. Frey investigated — and earned his Gawker special correspondent wings.

Frey is gunning for a promotion from Gawker intern to Gawker special correspondent and will be filing his own take on the run-in. Kade, however, seems a bit more familiar with Internet speed than our intern and, has already weighed in via his blog:

• Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show debuted last night. The reviews were mixed, although he did very well in the ratings, not surprisingly. [Variety, THR]
• Playboy Enterprises named Scott Flanders as its CEO yesterday. [NYP]
• Lawyers for author J.D. Salinger have filed suit against an author who is publishing a book billed as a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye. [NYT]
• Five magazines—Popular Photography, Flying, Boating, Sound & Vision and American Photo—have been sold to Bonnier Corp. by Hachette. [Crain's]
• Paris Hilton and producer Michael Hirschorn have teamed up to bring a version of Paris Hilton's My New BFF to Dubai. Yes, Dubai. No joke. [Variety]

Our secretary of state is biding her time, waiting for just the right moment to strike, according to Richard Wolffe's book on the Obama campaign. And then, when we least expect it, she'll finally win the 2008 Democratic primary campaign. It's true!

We knew Michael Gross's exposé of the Metropolitan Museum of Art would ruffle feathers. It's juicy stuff, clearly. But we didn't expect it would be banned. But that's what seems to be happening. The Independent reports that Amazon's British arm has stopped selling Gross's Rogues' Gallery "for fear of action from a libel tourist," namely Annette de la Renta, the museum vice chair and wife of designer Oscar de la Renta, who has threatened Gross with a libel suit. The ban isn't limited to foreign retail outlets, however.

Despite being the son of an English professor, maniacal all-caps blogger Kanye West claims he's a "proud non-reader," though he's co-written a book of "Kanye-isms" that he thinks you should totally read. It's 52 pages long, some of which are completely blank!

Dick Cheney, the least likable humanoid creature both on the planet and deep below its surface, where he came from, wants to write a book. He would like $2 million for it, thank you. It's worth it, though! His last book was totally awesome!

Last night, New York Times LA bureau chief Jennifer Steinhauer had a party for her new book at the home of Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton. The additional drama: Her husband Edward Wyatt covers television for the Times! So what happened?

Not only was beloved former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich denied his opportunity to be a celebrity wishing to get out of here, now he won't even get his million dollars from his book deal.

Jennifer Steinhauer is the L.A. Bureau chief for the New York Times. Her husband is Times television reporter Ed Wyatt. Steinhauer's having a book party in LA tonight for her new novel, Beverly Hills Adjacent. The location of the party: the home of Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton. What?

In your warming Wednesday media column: Steve Forbes is in your pocket, insulting your bosses in your competitor's paper may damage your career, somebody fucking finally does not write an Obama book, and much more!:

Sigh. We warned you this day would come. Lauren Conrad, the moon-faced star of MTV's The Hills, is set to release her first young adult novel. And her former intern haunt Teen Vogue has an excerpt.

Herman Rosenblat's touching story about reuniting with a holocaust survivor years after the war ended was a sham. Among the conned: the NY Post, Oprah, publishers. Now alchemized into fiction, the tale's finally going public.

A New York Times reporter is never really broke until after he's spent all the money he got to write a book about how he went broke. [NYT]

The world needs a Catcher in the Rye sequel like it needs an asshole on its elbow. Well, since New Jersey exists, so too must the book. Some debut novelist has published an unauthorized sequel.

Fiction author and former Gawker intern James Frey knows a scandalous secret about Oprah, allegedly. It's on tape, allegedly! We journalistically went to Frey's book reading last night to hear him tell the whole story:

Writers are getting mad as hell about digital versions of their books getting pirated online. Ursula K. Le Guin and Harlan Ellison will sue you. But we like horror mogul Stephen King's approach: insults!