If you think The Book Nook favors books and authors that I like, you are right. Unlike some other critics, the purpose of my column is not to tear down and destroy writers' reputations but to showcase the best and brightest in contemporary gay and lesbian literature. On the other hand, sometimes I have to warn the reader of books that I think are useless, worthless or even counterproductive. A case in point:

The Page Turner by David Leavitt; Houghton Mifflin Company; 244 pages; $24.00.

I know bashing David Leavitt has become a habit among gay writers and critics. Sometimes these attacks create sympathy for Mr. Leavitt; this, after all, is the guy who wrote Family Dancing and The Lost Language of Cranes, for crying out loud. But, like Rita Mae Brown before him, Leavitt's best material is in the past, and his contemporary efforts are, to put it mildly, frustrating attempts to shore up a rapidly deteriorating reputation.

Leavitt's previous book, Arkansas, was relatively good; in fact, the title story would have made a good sex novel if the writer were so inclined.

The Page Turner, on the other hand, is an embarrassment. It's as if Leavitt is required to put out a new book each year, no matter how lousy it is. Leavitt's tale of concert pianists and their boy friends show a lack of knowledge of classical music that is obvious even to a tone deaf critic.

Even worse, Leavitt populates his book with stock characters: the young, bright-eyed naif, the predatory older man, the mother who doesn't have a clue; I am sure Lifetime did this before. Far from being a "page turner", Leavitt's latest bore-fest almost put me to sleep; not a disservice for someone who suffers from occasional insomnia.

In any case, if you have trouble sleeping, take a warm bath and drink herbal tea instead. It will save you money.

Though my reviews might convince you otherwise, I enjoy reading trash now and then. Since Hollywood is the trash capital of the world, it makes sense that two of the most recent gay trash titles take place in Tinsel Town:

The cover of Doug Guinan's first novel features a bare, buff, muscular torso. Though this device is common in gay male books, it adequately describes California Screaming. The bare, buff, muscular torso in question belongs to Kevin Malloy, who is drop-dead gorgeous and trying to make it in Boystown as a fashion photographer.

Fortunately, fate (and Guinan) drops Kevin into the arms of media mogul Brad Sherwood, and the rest is Hollywood history. As all this suggests, California Screaming is pure trash, but fun trash, the kind you take to the beach. (I tried reading the book at Haulover Beach but I just couldn't: there were too many distractions.)

In a perfect world, California Screaming would make a good movie, or a situation comedy. Alas, the book will have to do.

Misadventures in the (213) is slightly more pretentious than California Screaming. That's OK, since Dennis Hensley's first book is slightly better than Guinan's.

Based on Hensley's pseudonymously-written Misadventures in the (213) column in Detour magazine, this book follows "Craig Clybourn's" (Dennis Hensley's) misadventures in Los Angeles (Area Code 213).

Hensley's book has a better chance to make it to television, since Clybourn has a wacky female friend similar to the ones in The Object of My Affection and Will and Grace.A bunch of real-life celebrity cameos add to the fun.

I must confess that I like Bob Paris. I liked him when he was Mr. Universe; I liked him when he was keeping house with Rod Jackson; and I liked him when he bared his soul in Gorilla Suit. If anyone can call himself a gay role model it would certainly be him.

On the other hand, this does not qualify him to be a guidance counselor, which he tries to be in Generation Queer. After giving us an all-too brief autobiographical segment, Paris devotes Generation Queer to answering questions from his fans. Though the questions are good and the answers even better, they are "Gay 101" Q&A that have already been posed before, by men and women who are more qualified than Paris to do so.

Like David Leavitt, Bob Paris seems to think that he has to put out a book - or he is contractually committed to do so - without realizing that, if he wants people to read his book, he must give them something worth reading.

John Lauritsen's primer is not trash; far from it. Originally published in 1974 as Religious Roots of the Taboo on Homosexuality, it is a "defense of male love from a secular humanist perspective".

Lauritsen, whose activist career predates Stonewall, is very critical of organized religion but, considering what's been going on lately, it's understandable. A Freethinker's Primer of Male Love features a companion essay, "Paradigms For Gay Liberation," and eight "Excursus" dealing with such topics as "Male Beauty," "Gay Christian Revisionism" and Lauritsen's own "Pagan Prayer."

On October 8th, the Publishing Triangle, the Robert Chesley Foundation and the New School for Social Research hosted the 10th Annual Triangle Awards.

The Triangle Awards began in 1989 to honor writers who made significant contributions to gay and lesbian literature. They consist of the Robert Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Ferro-Grumley Awards for Gay and Lesbian Fiction, the Grahn-Shilts Awards for Gay and Lesbian Non-Fiction, and the Robert Chesley Award for Play Writing. The Publishing Triangle Awards are the only national literary awards for lesbian/gay books that offer an honorarium.

This year's Whitehead winner is the multifaceted Marijane Meaker, who writes young adult novels as M. E. Kerr and who wrote lesbian pulps as Ann Aldrich and Vin Packer.

The Ferro-Grumley Awards went to Elana Dykewomon for Beyond the Pale and Colm Toibin for The Story of the Night. The Grahn-Shilts Awards went to Margot Peters for May Sarton: A Biography and David Sedaris for Naked. The Winner of the Robert Chesley Award is Chay Yew, whose works include Porcelain, A Language of Their Own, Wonderland, and The Courage to Stand Alone.