Last week, after we pondered, "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?"—referring to both one-night stands and blog-to-book deals, naturally—a tipster informed us that not only will some people buy the cow anyway, but there's actually a new book written on the subject:

Newly homeless thin Colin Farrell has reportedly been keeping his new girlfriend hidden from the press for six whole months, and now that she’s been outed by the British tabs, we understand why. No, not because she lacks “stereotypical movie star” looks as the Daily Mail readily informs us, nor because she can’t remember to rip those silly plastic party bracelets off after downing free booze. It seems his “true love” is a little bit famous herself, in a Bridget Jones sort of way. Author Emma Forrest is the author of two novels, which in itself is not exactly shameful, but the titles (Namedropper and Cherries In The Snow: A Novel Of Love, Lust, Loss And Lipstick), along with her history of wearing “DITCH HIM!” message tees and telling reporters that interviewing Brad Pitt was the “best thing” she’s ever done, are! More on the girl responsible for greying Colin’s hair and sobering him up, after the jump.

Malcolm Gladwell, blogger, New Yorker contributor, and poofy haired airport bookstore genius-in-residence, is finishing up his latest book just in time for the nascent backlash against him to reach full force. Gladwell's book The Tipping Point introduced his now-famous style: gleefully retold anecdotes arranged and analyzed to support some slightly unlikely sounding thesis. Blink took this style even further, presenting even more disparate stories manipulated to 'prove' some pseudo-scientific CEO self-help method for improving your decision-making skills. But both books sold zillions of copies and even embittered east coast writerly types still seemed to like him. Now, on the eve of his next book's publication, the cracks are starting to show.

Sex and the City author and former Observer columnist Candace Bushnell has a new novel coming out, called One Fifth Avenue. It concerns the various doyennes and bratty socials who live at One Fifth Avenue—the most important Manhattan apartment building of our time. (It has "thick, pre-war walls"!) Gawker.com is mentioned by name throughout the book, as one of its writers makes life hell for its residents:

It's Anna Wintour's 20th anniversary as editor of Vogue, and the be-bobbed one has certainly earned her title as one of the most feared figures in fashion. But it's worth remembering that she hasn't had a smooth ride. In fact, Wintour was beset by a salacious—and probably false—sex scandal rumor as soon as she took her job. Here, from the pages of Jerry Oppenheimer's biography Front Row, is the story of the alleged Wintour love connection with her boss, Si Newhouse—and how Wintour's reaction became a rare and fleeting moment of feminist pride inside Conde Nast:

Oh, so you can have it both ways! Pulitzer-winning author Junot Diaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) writes in the Wall Street Journal today of his love affair with the time-sucking video game Grand Theft Auto. He's also willing to admit to the lowbrow fun that it actually is (let's not dress it up with Godfather-referencing praise, people!)

This Craigslist-ad placer and "bestselling" author has been on the Tyra Banks Show, is willing to pay you $12 an hour (after you pay your own taxes), and just in case you didn't know what an assistant to a "well known author" does: "Did you see Sex in the City? Did you remember the role played by Jennifer Hudson where she's Carrie's assistant? Well, that's what I'm looking for." Oh, and don't reply if you are too good for "occasional light housework." (Even Louise from St. Louis organized Carrie Bradshaw's apartment!) Um, what else?

Oh, honestly. Slate and editor Jacob Weisberg stumbled onto a great thing back in 2000 when they began collecting George W. Bush's various verbal slip-ups and mistakes. The complete "Bushisms" was not only a great writes-itself regular feature for the site, it also made a nice book. But now, the Bush era is drawing to a close. How shall they replace their beloved Bushisms? With some bullshit that still makes no sense to us at all, months after they introduced it. Obamaisms. Which are not actually things Barack Obama has said (or even things that anyone, anywhere has said), but... words and phrases that Slate writers have clumsily wedged the candidate's oh-so-funny name into. For no reason. It upset us when it launched in February, and now they are pimping the book. Lord save us, this is the first time we've prayed for a McCain presidency. We're going to re-embed the "widget" below so you can see how mind-bogglingly pointless it is for yourself!

In his book on project management, Making Things Happen, O'Reilly author Scott Berkun advises readers to create an environment "where people are comfortable being ambitious, but will admit to and take responsibility for their mistakes." Failing that, one can always take the fifth when a mistake occurs and distract folks with a contest. In announcing the contest, Berkun told readers he couldn't explain why the title of the second edition of his The Art of Project Management mysteriously changed to Making Things Happen earlier this year.

As a savvy media person, writer Rob Kutner knows that you can't sell books anymore without making some funny YouTube vids to promote it. Lucky for Kutner, he writes for The Daily Show, so he was able to get the program's Aasif Mandi and Kristen Schaal (who is lovely!) to work on it for him. Oh yeah, the book is called Apocalypse How, and the apocalyptic video is after the jump.

Last week, comedian/author/VH1 dude Michael Ian Black started a feud with memoirist David Sedaris in preparation for the release of his own book, My Custom Van: And 50 Other Essays That Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face. I decided to ask him about that, and a bunch of other things, at around the time of night when I used to watch Battlestar Galactica. The deeply insightful results after the jump.

The snob in me has always felt that the casual, rough-draft nature of personal- or promotional-blogging was a bit beneath published authors—or at least the "serious" ones—who have spent months or years painstakingly creating their books, only to start a blog in which they vent insidery frustrations (Keith Gessen!) or post breathless blow-by-blow accounts of how that manuscript is coming along.

Sloane Crosley, author, popular publicist, self-effacing autobiographer, HBO series subject, gossip monster assembler, big ass chronicler, partygoer, and etiquette specialist has a new video interview out, and damned if she's not commenting on us and the rest of the "snarky urban jungle." Whoa, you write about somebody 27 times and all of a sudden it's like they can't stop talking about you. It's okay though—she thinks all this vicious online gossip is a net positive(!), a view that I tried to get across to Keith Gessen at his party, without success. Perhaps he will be persuaded by listening to his pal Sloane! Watch Crosley explain why she tolerates Gawker and its commenters, but Village Voice readers made her cry, below:

Some conservative pundits are, all of a sudden, understandably pissed at Democrat Al Gore for — well, maybe for not winning the White House for the liberals eight years ago or something? Or because they are jealous of Gore's Nobel Peace Prize, Oscar, and Emmy. Or maybe because they think Barack Obama will give Gore the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to someday become vice president. Anyway, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia just told Britain's Telegraph that Gore was a big baby who should have taken his unfair 2000 presidential defeat in stride like a real man, such as Richard Nixon. Since he had to wuss out and ask the Supreme Court to intervene, Scalia can't be held responsible for the ruling that ensued. Kind of a weird take from a guy now pimping a book called "The Art of Persuading Judges." But Scalia is not the only right-winger trashing Gore in the media lately. Here's an amazing, month-old clip in which Gore is accused of crushing the hopes of a Holocaust hero:

Hooray! Now we all get to track down Choire's book proposal! It is called And the Heart Says, "asdjdhslakdsf." [Twitter]

OK, former Gawker editor Emily Gould's book proposal reveals that her story will be told through her tattoos—and organized in that way! "While nothing that has happened to me in and of itself has been that noteworthy: Lots of young people have lived in big cities, and have had an assortment of strange and ordinary jobs... there are some truths about doing these things and about writing about them online that haven't yet been expressed." Daily Intel nabbed the proposal and has a small excerpt.

Daphne Oz, Princeton '08 and author of the freshman-15 battling book, The Dorm Room Diet, also put out an awesome workout video. The perils of gaining a couple pounds must be fought tooth and nail, says the daughter of frequent Oprah guest Dr. Mehmet Oz. Click for the gayest workout video of our time, starring Daphne's ex-boyfriend (says Ivygate) and sister. (Lessons: the "dorm-room workout"? It's Pilates. But never underestimate the power of a connected parent in publishing.)

Are you an author obsessed with tracking your Amazon.com ranking? Heh. [LA Times]

Everyone wants to know what's in her proposed memoir nonfiction book, And the Heart Says... Whatever, but the former blogger for this website is wisely having the proposal messengered around town to prevent leaks. (Nick Denton, however, is having spy-cam equipment installed outside her apartment.) Fishbowl has gleaned that "the word on the street is that whatever Gould has on submission goes beyond the [NY Times Magazine] article, and will focus more on her growing up and less on her time at Gawker." [Fishbowl]

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? The question applies to blogs (free content) that will soon be turned into books (content you pay for), as well as one-night stands! An as-yet-untitled book by blogger Lizzie Skurnick, based on her Jezebel column about classic children's/young adult literature, just sold to HarperCollins. Which got us thinking: how will the most recent blog-to-book deals sell when they are turned into blogs on paper, bound between two covers? From e-mailing moms to cats doing silly things, we round up some of the recent blog-to-book deals and ask ourselves: want, or do not want?