GIFT BOOKS IN BRIEF : SUPERSTITIONS, <i> By Peter Lorie (Simon & Schuster: $22.50; 255 pp.)</i>

Broke a mirror, did you? Seven years’ bad luck? No problem. Just take the shards to the nearest river and bathe them. Takes the spell off. (Caveat: It must be a south -flowing river. Otherwise, hoo-boy!)

What about breakfast? Surely you didn’t tempt Satan by breaking your boiled eggs at the small end? Or swallowing an orange seed? Don’t just stand there, call 911.

Lorie has compiled hundreds of superstitions here, traced their origins and alleged efficacy, occasionally offered his own sage advice (on pounding a nail into the skull to cure a headache: “It doesn’t work!”).

Want to get rid of an unsightly wart? (Sightly you can live with.) Touch it with a pebble and leave the stone at a crossroads. Whoever picks it up gets the wart.

The book’s many illustrations are splendidly quirky and sprightly, and while the writing is less than inspired, we know better than to look a gift in the mouth: Fine book, Lorie, and Good luck!