And Mr. Sikov uses the most uninteresting of formats - stringing together production notes, interviews and reviews to create a career résumé, then mixing in any available gossip - to further flatten the memory of Sellers's protean brilliance.

The biggest nonfiction hard-cover book was "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen W. Hawking, who reviews efforts to create a unified theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Only a handful of books have come close to that, but one million copies is especially impressive for "A Brief History of Time," whose author, a scientist, reviews efforts to create a unified theory of the universe.

A scientist reviews efforts to create a unified theory of the universe.

In the Senate, lawmakers from both parties have introduced other measures, including one to set up a blue-ribbon commission to review F.B.I. operations and one to create an independent inspector general for the agency who would report directly to the attorney general.

Since the book is by a scientist who reviews efforts to create a unified theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity, it is clearly not the kind of light fare that usually manages to stay on the list for that long a time.