That's advice not likely to be offered at your local book superstore.

But the era of blockbuster authors, ubiquitous book superstores and online retailers has not been kind to the book club.

And in the I.P.O. market, stocks that sell a repeat idea - book superstores, for instance - are often not as successful as the original.

The effort is the second by the country's largest operator of book superstores to take itself public.

That future, the company says, holds almost 300 book superstores, which are fast becoming the libraries of choice for many readers.

"It's a national phenomenon, the book superstore," said Walter F. Loeb, a retail consultant.

Without women's bookstores to promote them, lesser-known female authors will never make it to book superstores, Ms. Seajay said.

The Bronx, until recently spurned by banks and book superstores, has increased its number of jobs by 3,256 between 1987 and 1995.

He arrived in Austin in 1982 with $350,000 from investors to found Bookstop, one of the earliest book superstores.

The new company was officially created in April 1995 and the first two book superstores were opened in November 1995.