European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 10, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Read read read read read read read read read read read read read not the proportion of americans who read More than one Book a month is increasing starting at an Early age. Rising readership by Edwin Mcdowell new York times c conventional Wisdom has i that fewer and fewer americans Are Reading for pleasure and that those Whoso Are Reading less. Not so according to a Book Industry Survey. The truth is the proportion of americans who read More than one Book a month is increasing and sales of adult hard cover books juvenile books and professional books should increase Over the next four years according to an analysis sponsored by the Book Industry study group a new York based nonprofit corporation. The study Book Industry trends 1988, was compiled by a team of Industry experts analysts at the Center for Book research and faculty members at the University of Scranton. Overall Book sales should grow through 1992 at about the same modest rate As the Economy about 3.3 percent annually the report said. If that is not exactly a bullish forecast some Trade Book publishers that is publishers of general interest books say it is better than what they might have expected. Considering the inroads into our business made by video games and Vars it May not be a cause for Celebration but it s a comforting message Lawrence Hughes chairman of the Hearst Trade Book group said. The study is one of the most thorough done on an Industry that is notoriously indifferent to statistics and analyses. The study found among other things that there Are More than 22,500 Active publishers 8,000 of which have started within the last five year almost 12,700 non College bookstores More than twice the number in 1972 and More than 50,000 new titles published each year. Last year publishers sales reached almost $13 billion. For some categories of books the forecast is decidedly mixed. Sales of mass Market paperbacks Flat for several years should show fundamental improvement the Survey said. Yet publishers remain worried. Mass Market publishing is no Breeze for anybody right now said Hughes whose responsibilities include William Morrow & company and Avon books the latter a mass Market publisher. Book returns Are still bad it s still very costly to buy books for reprint and there is still a question whether you can sell books at More than $4.95." the return rate on mass Market books continues to exceed 40 percent meaning that for every 10 books shipped to bookstores and distributors at least four Are returned unsold. In actual practice Only the jackets Are returned for credit religious books will probably have a tougher time of it during the next several years the Survey concluded Selling fewer units and with Only modest increases in sales dollars. A big reason for the projected fall off is that the evangelical Christian revival of the 1970 a which created a surge in Christian publishers and Christian booksellers appears to have subsided. Trade books which include novels and nonfiction led the publishing pack in 1987 with $3.5 billion in retail sales followed by textbooks at More than $3.3 billion. But the textbook share of Industry revenues has been declining from 30 percent to 26 percent since 1972. On the other hand the Sale of juvenile books could remain Strong Well into the next Century while the Sale of professional books has virtually doubled since 1980. And the Dollar volume of adult hard cover books is expected to double through 1992, while unit sales should Rise 45 percent. Bulls and bears alike can find support in the Survey results. Heavy readers account for 30 percent of the Reading age population and 90 percent of general Book sales. Many heavy readers come from the baby Boom generation now Ages 25 to 44. Assuming the baby Boomers carry their appreciation for books into their 50s and 60s, the report said their support could sustain consumer Book sales Well into the next  also 12.5 percent of the Reading age population buys books three to four times a year while 7.5 percent buys books Only for gifts or in order to read a highly touted Best seller. Overall that Means that Only half the Reading age population reads and buys books a statistic the study says that Calls attention to the Industry s unfinished Agenda and vast remaining  finding the right word by computer Page 14 the stars and stripes by William Harwood United press International Ord finder for Apple s macintosh computer is a blindingly fast rapid speedy Swift electronic thesaurus that puts up to 220,000 synonyms at your fingertips for those moments when you just can t seem to come up with the perfect consummate flawless Ideal optimal impeccable word. The program originally designed for ism machines and adapted to the macintosh installs As a 40k desk accessory. Two separate thesaurus files Are provided one with 220,000 synonyms that takes up 325k on disk and another with 120,000 synonyms that takes up 160k of disk space. Obviously a hard disk is recommended although not required. Micro lyrics inc. Did a Superb Job of adapting the program to the macintosh environment and it works with All major Mac word processors and applications including word write now Mac write ready Stego and min writer. Version 2.0 will run with Apple s Multi finder and hype card system software. Say you re writing a report using Microsoft s word and you want to find an alternative for the word  select the word by double clicking it with the mouse or dragging Over it and open the word finder desk accessory. A window appears within seconds showing the selected word and its synonyms including alternate meanings. If the word is not found in the thesaurus word finder shows a list of 24 words of similar spelling. And the word finder window positions itself automatically allowing the user to View the original word in context. For the word manager 15 synonyms Are found in the Large thesaurus. Double Click on the synonym of your Choice in the word finder window or Click the mouse on the synonym and then Click on the window s replace Button. Like magic the window disappears and the new word replaces the old one in your document. You also can Type in a word from scratch at any Point to Check its spelling or look up synonyms of synonyms and use one of those As a replacement. Even the Small thesaurus file is More than adequate for most uses. In an admittedly unscientific test i chose 67 words at random from a news Story and off the top of my head. Of those seven were not found in the Large thesaurus. Another five were not found in the Small thesaurus. And some entries can be surprising. I would have though synonyms for the word mated for example would be based on the Root  in word finder the Root is mat because the synonyms include carpet mattress pad and Rug. The program ignores the context of wednesday August 10,1988 the selected word. Synonyms for the word showing for example include exhibit exhibition publicity and performance. In such cases you May have to edit the replacement word to fit the desired context but this is a minor quibble fault Haggle hassle. At $59.95 retail in the United states word finder is an essential tool for anyone who deals with words on even a casual basis. Three offerings from to maker a leading publisher of macintosh clip Art provide a smorgasbord of High Quality images useful with a wide variety of Page layout and graphics programs. Clip Art is simply that ready made Art the user can clip from one Page and paste onto another. In the world of personal computers this process translates into copying an image from a magnetic disk storing it in ram and then inserting it into another document. The result personal computer owners can jazz up s male letters or Complex reports and presentations with Quality Art that enhances the Impact of the message and perhaps the image of the presenter. Clickard business images macintosh version $49.95 retail ism version $69.95 contains 1,246 separate images in 21 categories ranging from pictures of computers to drawings of cars trucks boats maps flags and abstract logos. Clickard Christian images macintosh version $59.95 retail ism version $69.95 contains 602 drawings with Christian themes that could prove extremely useful for Church groups when it comes to illustrating newsletters announcements or reports. The Mac versions come on single 800k disks and All the images Are drawn in the ubiquitous Mac paint format. Ism versions Are supplied on two 5.25-Inch disks in three formats windows paint pc Paintbrush and Gem paint. The third offering Clickard eps illustrations Mac and ism versions $129.95 retails a collection of 127 encapsulated postscript images designed for output on High Resolution printers that support the postscript Page description language. Encapsulated postscript is a format that lets you View a copy of a postscript image even though your computer cannot show actual postscript files. It also allows you to rescale images without sacrificing Resolution or Quality. Eps illustrations Are High Quality professionally implemented drawings covering a wide variety of topics awards animals cameras cars maps clocks food Industrial symbols and so on that can be used to illustrate any publication letter or report. The Mac version is supplied on four 800k disks with the ism version supplied on eight 5.25-Inch disks. All three offerings Are Welcome additions to to maker s already extensive series of clip Art releases and All three Are highly recommended. Bookstore s cover is blown by Joan Mower associated press set tucked away on the sixth floor of a downtown Washington office building is a Bookstore for spies where you can learn How to change your identity determine if your Telephone is bugged look inside the Kab or get some self help guidance on becoming an agent. But you almost have to engage in espionage to find the National intelligence Book Center which specializes in books magazines computer software and tapes on spies cryptography surveillance the Cia the Kab and spooks of All kinds. It is one of Washington s secrets this whispery one room shop. Once you find it there Are plenty of clues that this is not your run of the Mill Bookstore. Access is controlled by a High tech Security door. Callers on hold Are treated to tape recorded readings from famous spy tales. The store is open to the Public Only three Days a week and visitors must Check packages in lockers before entering. There is no telling who you la bump into among the clientele. Elizabeth Bancroft the store s founder and director refuses to name her customers. They prefer to remain Covert. But patrons include famous authors literary editors doctors lawyers and of course government officials from the United states and abroad. Elizabeth Bancroft founder and director of the National intelligence Book Center in Washington d.c., Peers out from some of her wares. One customer of Bancroft s mail order service was said to be the late William j. Casey former director of the Cia and author of the secret War against Hitler posthumously published memoirs of his service in the Cia s world War ii forerunner the office of strategic services. Norman Mailer and Jacqueline Onassis reportedly have contacted the store. It s a Crossroads for people in the intelligence Community says writer Jim Hougan. I consider myself knowledgeable in this area but some of the stuff in her store is really  Joseph Goulden another writer hooked on True spy tales limits himself to about one visit a month. If i went too often i d be broke. I could easily spend $2,000 in  browsers there Are about 30 or 40 a Day often spend several hours at the Center. Bancroft said she finally had to remove chairs from the room to prevent patrons from parking themselves All Day. Bancroft a Crisp Black haired woman who turned her fascination with the netherworld of spying into her life s work prides herself on the Range of books she has compiled. Most of the 1,400 titles Are non fiction but the Center stocks a smattering of spy fiction such As the works of John be Carre and Ian Fleming s James Bond stories. The store carries everything from the soviet inspired Devil and his Dart How the Cia is plotting in the third world to the whole spy catalogue an espionage lovers guide and David Kahn s seminal volume on cryptography the code  foreign language books Are also displayed mainly russian and French. On the lighter Side there Are Coffee mugs displaying Kab and Cia emblems government maps James Bond s bedside companion the comic Book of mis and a How to Book on passing the Fri s Entrance exam. The shop does t Stock material on explosives or silencers. The most popular books Bancroft says Are from obscure publishers How to disappear completely and never be found and How to create a new  the latter written by Anonymous outlines step by step ways to get a new Driver s License credit cards birth certificate and other documents. Among the duds anything to do with the Iran Contra affair. I had to give some Ollie North books away because no one was buying them Bancroft says. North a former Marine lieutenant colonel has been indicted for his role in Selling weapons to Iran and diverting the profits to the nicaraguan contras. Bancroft a Harvard educated new yorker who had worked As a professional fund Raiser before she plunged into the Book business started the Center As a mail order operation in her Home about two years ago. She specialized in finding obscure books on intelligence gathering. So successful was the operation people routinely showed up at her Doorstep that she sold her House moved into an apartment and stocked a rented office with books. She expanded into new quarters in the same building a few months ago. Until just recently Bancroft did t advertise. The shop depended on whisper of Mouth for customers to learn of its existence. Although she has received Strong moral support from Well known Excia officials Bancroft says financing for the store comes from private investors and Loans. We have had people invest who Are interested in the subject matter but no one i know of is being funded by an intelligence group she says. With Only one assistant Bancroft often works 18-hour Days answering questions from customers ordering books and wrapping packages at the store which started to turn a profit recently. Bancroft has no plans to expand to a regular Street level operation. People like the idea that we Are hidden away she says. Besides she adds i am not big on dealing with the  the stars and stripes Page 15