The National Memorial Day Concert on the Mall in Washington, D.C., turns 20 on Sunday. And while executive producer Jerry Colbert is proud of the event's longevity, he's quick to point out the poignant, main reason for the show -- to honor those who have died or been injured in service to their country.

Colbert says the concert (which airs live at 8 p.m. on WPBT2) always brings a deluge of e-mails from people who are inspired to write about their lost loved ones.

''This is the most meaning for me in the project, because as I read four or five hundred of these, you know, you see how deeply you touch people,'' he says. ``They're stories you wouldn't even dream of. And they share their stories with you, and that makes it truly a national memorial.''

The concert will feature music, readings and performances.

'We were doing this in the late '80s, and I thought, `Gee the wars are over,' '' Colbert says. The Persian Gulf War soon followed, and now the country is dealing with conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The many injured veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan inspired concert organizers to make the recognition of those who care for their wounded family members a theme. Among those appearing during this year's show will be former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, actor Katie Holmes, Dianne Wiest, and Laurence Fishburne and singers Trace Adkins and Katharine McPhee.

Actors Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna will co-host for the fourth time.

In this 200th anniversary year of Abraham Lincoln's birth, conductor Erich Kunzel says he decided to have the National Symphony Orchestra play music from the film Gettysburg. And opera singer Denyce Graves will perform a new arrangement of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

-- BECKY KRYSTAL

The shrinking economy and rising technology have transformed how, and how many, books are being published.

With publishers cutting back new releases in response to declining sales, an estimated 275,000 traditional books were released in the United States last year, a drop of about 9,000 from 2007, according to Bowker, a New Providence, N.J.-based company that compiles industry statistics.

Categories with the biggest reductions included travel, religion and biography.

But the number of ''on-demand'' books, a category featuring works with tiny, digitally stored print runs, topped 285,000 in 2008, the first time they outnumbered traditional texts. In 2006, there were fewer than 22,000 on-demand titles, which have become an increasingly popular way to bring old books back into print or keep recent releases from going out of print.

Associated Press

The secluded island house where Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman spent his final years is up for sale.

Several bidders have expressed interest in the 84-acre property on the small Baltic Sea island of Faro, according to Joachim Wrang-Widen at Christie's Great Estates in London, which is managing the sale.

Bergman, who died on July 30, 2007, is famous for cinema classics such as The Seventh Seal and the Oscar-winning Fanny and Alexander.

He lived in the main house alone after his wife Ingrid died in 1995. The building was partly designed by Bergman and is surrounded by pine forest and meadows. The estate also has other buildings, including a whitewashed barn with a private cinema and a writing lodge.

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