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They have golf on their minds in Voorhees these days. Day trading is hot in Mount Holly. So is Harry Potter. In Plymouth Meeting, it's Star Wars, back pain and HTML that get people going. And everyone, everywhere, is trying to lose weight. "Purchase circles," the latest blend of high-tech Internet bells and whistles with old-fashioned salesmanship, debuted on Amazon.com last month in what the online book company calls an effort to serve customers better. The concept is pretty simple: Click on a town, company name or university and you can see what books, CDs and videos are selling particularly well there.

Margie Tannenbaum keeps a pile of free paperbacks, three green lawn chairs, and a knee-high evergreen tree outside her used-book store on East High Street to goad the skeptics. The downtown, she said, is on its way back. Opened just two months ago with fewer than 2,000 books, Tannenbaum's Evergreen Bookstore has doubled its inventory, increased sales, and, most important, staked its claim as a pioneer in the borough's quest to infuse new life into its dilapidated downtown.

The 10 top-selling videos of movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock, compiled by Amazon.com as part of today's centennial celebration of the filmmaker's birth: 1. Psycho (1960) 2. North by Northwest (1959) 3. Vertigo (1958) 4. The Lady Vanishes (1951) 5. Strangers on a Train (1951) 6. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) 7. Notorious (1946) 8. Rebecca (1940) 9. The 39 Steps (1935) 10. The Birds (1963) Source: Amazon.com Personal favorite of Hitchcock, as well as of John Timpane, editor of the Commentary Page.

The success of the Harry Potter books should have book publishers smiling from ear to ear. In fact, the little wizard is giving them nightmares. More than any previous book, the children's series is spotlighting a growing controversy over Internet book sales. A special set of circumstances - the Potter series is an international best-seller originating in Britain, and there is a lag time of months before Potter books reach the hungry U.S. market - has allowed Internet bookseller Amazon.

INTERNET I Amazon.com adds toys, electronics to inventory Amazon.com, the largest on-line retailer, will add stores for toys and electronics to its Internet site to expand its gift offerings ahead of the Christmas holiday shopping season. Both stores, which opened yesterday, are believed to be the largest on the World Wide Web, said Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Bezos. The electronics store will offer brands and products from camcorders to computer peripherals and TVs. The toy store will feature both hot-selling goods from major vendors and smaller products from specialty brands.

Yum. An 11-year fast has done little to sate America's appetite for Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter, who made his return to the bookstores Tuesday. The 1.3 million copies of Thomas Harris' Hannibal (Delacorte, $27.95) that were released will, presumably, be devoured on a beach near you sometime this summer. Hannibal is the sequel to 1988's The Silence of the Lambs, which became 1991's five-Oscar-award-winning, $130 million-grossing, Jodie Foster/Anthony Hopkins-starring thriller.

Everyone's heard the standard story in this era of Borders and Amazon.com. Millions saw it on the big screen, too, acted out by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail. One minute a charming, independent bookstore is doing fine, doling out heartfelt recommendations and list-price books to loyal customers. The next minute, it's closing, its regulars shopping online or heading to the new megastore down the block. Everyone's heard the story, it seems, except Powell's City of Books.

The merger of CDnow Inc. of Fort Washington and rival Internet music retailer N2K Inc. of New York became official yesterday with approval of the deal by shareholders of both companies. The combined company - with a market valuation of about $550 million - will keep the CDnow Inc. name, but will have its headquarters in New York, where N2K has key ties to the entertainment, advertising and new-media industries. CDnow was founded in Ambler in 1994 by twins Jason and Matthew Olim, now 29. Jason Olim, who will retain the titles of president and chief executive officer of CDnow, said that despite the headquarters move, major operations will continue at the CDnow operations in Fort Washington, where the company employs about 300. Jon Diamond, cofounder and CEO of N2K, will become chairman of the board of CDnow.