BAIT OFF-COLOR STORIES FOR YOU

Chuck Palahniuk invites readers to collaborate on this unprecedented hardcover edition: ''Maybe between your colors, the artists' designs, and my stories we can create something that endures. Something worth keeping. Let's create a well-bound book that can sit on any shelf and be available for a new generation to discover and enjoy.'' Palahniuk's short stories are provocative and not for the faint of heart. Bait continues in that vein with stories about:A passenger on the Titanic who finds a surgical solution to the obstacle of ''women and children first''A Hollywood star whose fading brand faces a viral (and scatological) internet campaignAn animal psychic who coaxes a statement from a fish that witnessed a political assassination. Increasingly terrible birthday gifts that place a girl at the center of an extinction-level event.