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Stuck for a Christmas present for that special bookworm in your life? Here are some recommendations from former history professor Newt Gingrich, who urged the 229 other Republicans in the new House of Representatives to spend their holidays in study. Gingrich proved he's a multimedia kind of speaker of the House, having only the previous day advised Hillary Rodham Clinton to rent the video of Boys Town with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney. The list he offered his House colleagues is sort of half historical, half futuristic.

The first surprising thing about the Old Original Bookbinder's Restaurant Cookbook ($12.95) is that the author, Judith Frazin, is from California. The second is that this restaurant, so associated with seafood, has so many meat, poultry and pasta recipes in its cookbook. Proprietor John E. Taxin explained that Frazin, a family friend, took on the task of collecting a new group of recipes because the first cookbook was "so outdated. " It was published more than 30 years ago, making it older than Taxin, the third generation of his family to run Bookbinder's.

AT WORST . . . THE BEST OF BOY GEORGE AND CULTURE CLUB Boy George and Culture Club / SBK 1/2 "Jimi Hendrix was more than a guitar solo, Ziggy was more than his stardust, Prince is more than a pair of Cuban heels. Boy George is more than his eyebrows. " There's actually some truth in this twinkle of Boy George, taken from the liner notes of his new greatest-hits CD. While he was primarily an androgynous style icon of the early '80s, known for his mascara more than his music, he wasn't just kissing to be clever.

Three pieces of equipment are generally required for any truly satisfactory video experience: a TV set, a VCR and Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide. Although TVs and VCRs last perhaps eight to 12 years, the 1,500-page Maltin tome cries out for replacement every fall, when the new edition appears with a thud at bookstores. Of course, replacement is not mandatory, but true movie lovers consult the book with such zeal that a year is usually punishment enough for its pages. Now we have the 1994 edition just published by Signet ($7.99)

After traveling down the Yellow Brick Road, Charles Santore has taken the plunge into the watery realm of the Little Mermaid. Santore, 58, is the illustrator of classic children's books, including "Aesop's Fables" and "The Wizard of Oz. " His latest is a sensitive evocation of "The Little Mermaid" (Jelly Bean Press/$14). Santore's Little Mermaid is closer in spirit to Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 story than to the 1989 Disney film. But Santore believes the aquatic heroine has an appeal for all ages.

It was a long-awaited night for the township. Mayor William Park Jr., Commissioners Charles DiPietropolo and Nicho- las Laurito, and others gathered on MacArthur Boulevard for the opening of a new library. After Haddon Township commissioners cut the ribbon July 30 for the newest branch of the Camden County Library, residents were allowed to tour it. The $4 million facility was funded jointly by the township and the county. The library is named in honor of the late William G. Rohrer, the township's first mayor.

Here is a plot for a modern-day thriller. A daring, young author travels across several continents in search of spiritual fulfillment. Near the end of his quest, our hero is trapped in a war-torn land when unseen, malevolent forces conspire against him. Sound a trifle predictable? For Wilton Barnhardt, author of the novel "Gospel" (St. Martin's/$24.95), truth was not far from fiction. While researching his book in the Sudan, Barnhardt found himself in dire straits when his credit card was mysteriously canceled.

Most basketball coaches rebuild. Abington coach Ted Weiner simply restocks the shelves. The Ghosts lost the top seven players from last year's team, which won 20 games and a division championship, and also advanced to the state tournament. This year's roster includes only three seniors - and seven juniors. "There's some talent there, but as far as varsity experience they're very much untried," Weiner said. "It's just running in a cycle. It's an every- other-year kind of cycle.

Many fine reference books will tell you what's available on videotape, but if I had to limit myself to a single one, it wouldn't be a book by a well- known critic or film historian. It would be the mail-order catalogue published every year by Movies Unlimited in Philadelphia, which released the 1993 edition recently. Now in its 15th year, this 3-pound, 688-page monster exists primarily to sell videocassettes through the mail - something Movies Unlimited has been doing nationally since the invention of the VCR. Over the years many competitors have arisen, some producing their own catalogues.

The barbarians are well inside the gates at Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Dirty Harry's "Go ahead, make my day," Cookie Monster's "Me want cookie" and the Doors' "Come on, baby, light my fire" are among the pop- culture quotations included in Bartlett's 16th edition, along with wise sayings from the Bible, dead poets, philosophers and statesmen from the last 4,000 years. "I've tried to make the book a great deal more down to earth," said Justin Kaplan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who edited this latest version of the guide first published in 1855.