Sixteen novelists, including California writers Michael Chabon, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), Dave Eggers, Amy Tan, Andrew Sean Greer and ZZ Packer, are auctioning off a chance to have your name appear in an upcoming book. The eBay bidding opens Sept. 1. And all proceeds go to a good cause — the First Amendment Project. Here’s a sample offering from Dave Eggers:

The winner will be featured in a strange illustrated story I’m working on called The Journey of the Fishes Overland. The winner, or someone of her/his choosing, will be encountered by the traveling fish in question, as they travel over land. It could also be a family, a house, an address, whatever. I get to decide why the fishes see this person/place, and what’s said by/to or done by/to the person/place. This story will be finished and published in the fall…

• Rick Wartzman, the new editor of the LAT’s Sunday magazine and co-author of The King of California, has recruited Amy Tan as the magazine’s fiction editor. [via laobserved]

• Today Powells.com features Esquire’s review of A Field Guide to Getting Lost, our New Release of the Week.

• The GAO delves into the soaring cost of college texts.

• Thirty-eight volumes and $570 later, Frances Dinkelspiel of Ghost Word sorts through her library of writing books and suggests seven that inspired her.

• The Times recently wrote about Southern Californians whose homes are buried with books. The story also ponders such questions as: How high can a bookcase go? (Screenwriter Steven Frank has one that extends fourteen feet.) Is it OK to fill every inch of the house with books? (Literary agent Betsy Amster, who with sociologist husband Barry Glassner owns “who knows exactly how many — thousands” of books, says yes). When you marry or cohabit, do you merge collections, disposing of the duplicates? (Sometimes, but not always). Read Carol Mithers’ story here. [Thanks to TEV and LABrainTerrain]

• The Seal Beach Kids group has launched an end-of-summer book drive to collect new and gently used children’s books and movies for Children Today, a Long Beach nonprofit that works with homeless children. The drive runs through Aug. 25. Send books to The Play House, 1301 West 12th St., Long Beach, 90813. Or make a donation anytime through the Children Today website.