All the news that’s fit to capsulize!

WHAT A DRAG(ON)!
Anyone who wondered whether lightning could strike thrice for wunderkind fantasy author Christopher Paolini need not have wasted time and energy in doing so. His BRISINGR — book three in his INHERTIANCE CYCLE — sold 550,000 copies on Sept. 20 alone, its first day of release. That made it the greatest one-day sale in the history of Random House’s children’s titles. (Its print run of 2.5 million is another first for the publisher.) BRISINGR’s tally was four times greater than ELDEST, the second book in the series. Oh, and Paolini is 24 years old. Feel like a loser yet?

PELECANOS’ PICKS
THE TURNAROUND author George Pelecanos has shared his “Five Most Important Crime Novels” with NEWSWEEK, with Raymond Chandler’s THE LONG GOODBYE topping his list. More surprisingly is what he deems “my generation’s GRAPES OF WRATH.” Check out the full list.

‘CON ARTISTS
Baltimore is prepping for Bouchercon, the annual mystery conference, taking place this year Oct. 9-12. Scheduled guests for the 39-year-old event include Laura Lippman, as American Guest of Honor; Lawrence Block, as Distinguished Contributor to the Genre; Sean Chercover, Declan Hughes, Dennis Lehane, Jonathan Santlofer, Peter Robinson, Tasha Alexander, Louis Bayard, Max Allan Collins, Brian Azzarello, Greg Rucka, Duane Swierczynski, Mario Acevedo, Andrew Gross, William Lashner and not me. For more information, visit the Bouchercon website —Rod Lott

Buy them at Amazon.