The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin recently acquired the archives of author Jim Crace. From across the pond, the Guardian reports how the papers of such British literary lights are ending up far from the sainted shores.

Mr. Crace is happy to have received a six-figure sum (in pounds, even, not mere dollars) for his crates of material, but not without some feelings of guilt.

"When I was at the Ransom Center," the Guardian reports Mr. Crace as saying, "I held Blake paintings and Coleridge notebooks in my hand. I couldn't help thinking that they didn't belong there." The paper adds: "Many a British university archivist would say amen to that. 'Two things are inevitable: death and Texas,' one of them was heard to sigh."

The Guardian notes: "Texas is not the only university luring British archives across the Atlantic – Emory, in Georgia, has recently secured collections from Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Carol Ann Duffy and Salman Rushdie – but its Ransom Center appears to have endless space and bottomless pockets."

Not everyone in Texas has bottomless pockets for literature.

The El Paso Times, as noted in Shelf Awareness, says high gas prices are cutting into book sales there.

Olga Velez, owner of the Book Rack in East El Paso, says that when gas went up, purchases went down. The store went from making a profit to just barely covering costs. "In the 23 years that the store has been in business, it has never taken a hit like that," she told the Times.

Although business has steadied, she worries more about bigger issues as well. "What's hurting us is the attitude that reading doesn't matter. I've seen a rapid decline of readers since I started working here years ago."

Gillian Anderson is jumping on the publicity bus for the upcoming X-Files movie. But she has her limits. Newsweek's Ramin Setoodeh led off a Q&A by asking, "What's the big deal about the series?"

Agent Scully's reply: "Omigod. You're not going to do this to me, are you? Tell me you're not going to do this. Oh, come on! It's been such a long time. Hire somebody that knows enough that we don't have to explain this again."

Things took a happier turn when the writer explained, "I saw the last movie, but I didn't watch all nine seasons," and Ms. Anderson said:

"I mean, nobody did. Did they? Yes. There are some people that did. But that's cool. I love running into people who have no idea what it's about."

So we know how celebrities work extra hard to stay slim, toned and looking all-around fabulous. Remember that those paparazzi cameras don't lie.

But, hmm, sometimes we wonder how serious this pumping-into-glamorous-shape thing gets. Take Mariah Carey, for example. She's battled weight issues here and there. Nothing too obvious, however. And lately she's been eager to show off her svelte, curvy bod.

Yet surely she was joking during a recent conversation with Elle magazine:

"She's happy with me. She lets me eat meals now," Ms. Carey said about her personal trainer, who helped sculpt her into picture-perfection.

She was kidding, right?

Compiled by GuideLive staff