For your weekend reading pleasure, here are our top stories of the week, including disappearing books, a Wal-Mart library and Tom Cruise playing Lee Child‘s thriller hero, Jack Reacher (video embedded above).

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1. Tom Cruise Plays Jack Reacher in New Trailer
2. Wal-Mart Converted into a Library
3. Free Sites to Promote Your eBook
4. CJ Lyons Sweeps Self-Published Bestseller List with 99-Cent Sale
5. Twitter Cheat Sheet for Writers
6. Book That Disappears As You Read
7. The Lost History of Fifty Shades of Grey
8. 5 Ways to Promote Your Book Right Now
9. J. K. Rowling eBook Will Cost $19.99
10. Jennifer Weiner on Social Media, Blogging & Writing About Controversial Issues

In December, Tom Cruise will crash into movie theaters playing hardboiled hero Jack Reacher in an adaptation of one of Lee Child‘s bestselling thrillers.

We’ve embedded the first trailer for Jack Reacher above–what do you think? Some of our readers have mixed feelings about the upcoming adaptation.

Check it out: “On the heels of Cruise’s very messy breakup with Katie Holmes — and the actor’s 50th birthday — the trailer for “Jack Reacher” has debuted online. (A Russian copy leaked on the internet over the weekend.) The film stars Cruise as Reacher, a former military police major investigating the case of a military-trained sniper.”

Deadline New York broke the news that Tom Cruise is currently considering the role of thriller hero Jack Reacher in an adaptation of a novel from Lee Child‘s bestselling Reacher series.

Do you think Cruise could handle this hardboiled role? Christopher McQuarrie will direct the film,  One Shot. Follow this link to read an excerpt from the novel.

Here’s more from the article: “I’m told that the author himself is excited about Cruise playing the role, that Cruise personifies the qualities Reacher displays in the books. As for Reacher’s hulking physical size, Child wasn’t locked into an oversized actor (one reason the film took so long to get off the ground), and it was more about establishing an intimidating presence.”

In the video embedded above, cartoonist and author Travis Nichols celebrates his book release by dancing with a potted plant, playing “Guitar Hero,” and imitating Tom Cruise‘s famous Risky Business scene.

What did you do to celebrate the first copy of your book?

Nichols’ new book, The Monster Doodle Book, will be available on June 7th. According to the press release, the book is intended to help “spur-on readers’ imaginations with half-finished sketches of aliens, robots, and other creatures.

According to the New Yorker, author and director Guillermo del Toro has withdrawn from negotiations to direct an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft‘s horror classic, “At the Mountains of Madness.”

Here’s more from New Yorker reporter Daniel Zalewski : “On Monday, del Toro withdrew from the negotiations, and that night at ten-thirty he sent me a short, mournful e-mail: ‘Madness has gone dark. The ‘R’ did us in.’ Del Toro had told me that he would not compromise on the film’s rating, even though a film rated PG-13 would have a much easier time attracting a mass audience.”

Yesterday we linked to reports that the film would start shooting this year and that Tom Cruise would star in the horror movie.

Actor George Clooney will star in an adaptation of Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi‘s nonfiction book, The Monster of Florence. Valkyrie screenwriters Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander will team up to work on the script.

Grand Central Publishing released the nonfiction book in 2008. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tom Cruise was originally slated to star in the movie–Cruise recruited McQuarrie for the project.

Here’s more about the book: “Preston and Spezi’s book is an investigation into the murderer (or murderers) known as Il Mostro, who killed more than a dozen people from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s without being caught. In the course of their digging, Preston, who had moved with his family to a villa in Florence, and Spezi, an Italian crime journalist, were themselves then investigated by the police.”

Leonardo DiCaprio will play a real-life 19th Century serial killer in an upcoming adaptation of Erik Larson‘s book, The Devil in the White City.

Here’s more from the release: “[T]he film follows both the planning and execution of the mass murders, which take place during the city’s most profound moment on the world’s stage.In the film, DiCaprio plays the murder-minded H.H. Holmes, a cavalier charlatan who takes advantage of somewhere between 27 and 200 people, mostly single young women, to develop a lucrative personal cadaver-disposal system.”

Deadline Hollywood has more about the deal, including some back-story about Tom Cruise‘s attempt to mount a production of the book. Although best known for this book, Larson is also the author of a number of nonfiction books, including Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, and Thunderstruck.

David Cronenberg has plans to adapt Robert Ludlum‘s “The Matarese Circle” as a big budget film starring Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington.

Variety uncovered more details of the film’s schedule, based on a book about a KGB and CIA agent who team up to fight an international cabal of killers. Following the success of film adaptations of Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series, the project has drawn some big name stars with tight schedules.

Here’s more from the article, which includes some surprising remake news: “[Cronenberg] is prepping for MGM ‘The Matarese Circle’ as a starring vehicle for Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington. Since Cruise appears likely to next star in the DreamWorks drama ‘Motorcade’ and Washington has committed to the Fox drama ‘Unstoppable,’ ‘Circle’ doesn’t appear likely to get under way until later this year or 2010.”