BOOK BATTLES: Local libraries are fighting back...

BOOK BATTLES: Local libraries are fighting back against the latest budget woes. In Anaheim, officials will take your cans to recycle--for money to buy children’s books. Garden Grove has gone to $1.50 weekly rentals for bestsellers. . . . The new campaign at the Newport Beach Library: To persuade upscale patrons to donate hardback bestsellers once they’ve read them, instead of shelving them at home. . . . Hottest book in demand right now? John Grisham’s “The Rainmaker”--with 325 names on its waiting list.

PLAIN, PLEASE: Bagels are big business in Orange County (OC Live!) and competition is forcing bakers to try new creations. But Howard Amster, owner of the three I Love Bagels stores in Orange County--which serve 31 flavors--says one bagel will always head the list in popularity: “Plain bagels. When customers come in to buy a dozen, they’re usually buying for their whole office. Since they don’t know what everyone wants, they’ll always say, ‘Throw in a few plain too.’ ”

VOICES PAST: Little Saigon radio received hundreds of on-air calls Tuesday about U.S. normalization of relations with Vietnam. One surprise among them: former South Vietnam President Nguyen Van Thieu, 70, still active in anti-Communist causes. His call generated many others, mostly those struck by the deja vu of listening to their former leader on such an historic day. . . . Says radio station president Quynh Trang Nguyen: “People said it reminded them of the days of the war when he used to get on the radio to give speeches. They said he still sounds the same.”

TAKE TWO: The New York Times, which last month panned UC Irvine poet Michael Ryan’s memoir about his sexual addiction, has just issued a second, kinder opinion. . . . The first reviewer cautioned that “Secret Life” was for the “Oprah or Geraldo” audience; a second reviewer praised it as “extraordinarily absorbing and disquieting.” . . . Ryan’s reaction: “I’m sure before this is all over, everything that could possibly be said will be said.”

TONIGHT: “Blood Knot,” a drama by Athol Fugard, opens at 8. The Ensemble Theater, 844 E. Lincoln Ave., Suite E, Orange.