There are a lot of ways to drum up publicity for your own book, but I think throwing it at the president takes the cake.

As I just told M. Simon in an email related to his post, it's obvious that the authorities know the title, and equally obvious that they don't want ordinary people to know:

The Secret Service says it was aware of the incident when it happened.

A spokesman says the book was thrown by an "over-exuberant" individual who wanted Obama to have a copy of a book he had written.

The Secret Service says it interviewed the book thrower and deemed there was no threat - just bad judgment on his part. No arrest was made and the Service declined to give his name.

Which probably explains why the incident hasn't been much reported in the American press, so we had to learn about it via Glenn's link to the Brits.

MORE: From a local Fox News story: "There are no confirmed reports as to what was the book's title or subject matter. A Reuters photographer seems to have snapped the clearest picture of the book. And it isn't very clear at all.

Damn it, I just want to know the title!

It's hard to judge a book when you can't see its cover.

AND MORE: Many of the commenters at the WaPo writeup are speculating that the book thrower was a Tea Partier, although a few are saying the opposite.

But wait a minute! The Tea Partiers are a bunch of illiterate morons, right? So, if the book was thrown by its author, according to elementary leftist logic, he could not have been a Tea Partier.

MORE: Via a tip from a commenter here named Dennis Madden, I learned that a man (said to post Internet writings "about how 'wisdom is a fragrance of the brain' and 'why the man's sperm is tiny while the woman's egg is huge') is claiming to be the book thrower:

The man who threw a book at Obama in Philadelphia yesterday is a New York antiques dealer called Sajid Ali Khan.

From the Amazon description:

This book offers the guidance to learn exactly what is wisdom and how one can become wise. All the philosophers from the ancient times to the present have tried and failed to define wisdom beyond defining it by its attributes. Sajid has taken wisdom from the realm of philosophy and put it firmly in the realm of science. The 200 aphorisms contained here, first published as 'knols' on the web, give exact insights into the nature of the self and how it can be mastered. Lack of emotional intelligence education is a very big factor in the current world mess from economics to education and everything else in between. This book provides practical answers to many of these problems. It provides an opportunity to create a super mature society through emotional intelligence education which at the highest super mature stage is wisdom. These knollettes are remarkable for their beautiful clearness and simplicity of form. Wisdom is no longer a mystery any more and everyone can become wise.

I don't think throwing a book at the president is a very wise thing to do.

And I hope I haven't promoted the book; what happens to me is that I get curiouser and curiouser, and I can't quit until I have some sort of answer.

MORE: The picture above is a closeup from the picture circulating everywhere which shows the book as it passes the president. I think it is most likely the back of the book, as I assumed that the price sticker would normally be on the bottom, I turned the book upside down and saw what looks like the outline of a swan.

Amazon only shows the front cover (featuring a swan):

So while I could be wrong, my guess is that that's the book, and that the outline of the swan on the airborne book is part of the rear cover design.

MORE: The author denies that he threw the book at the president:

look how history is written I threw my book when the President was off the stage and I actually threw the book away from the President even though I very much wanted to get it to his attention and I know what lines I cannot cross. But it made it in the news as 'someone threw a book at the President'!

Some of my friends said that they saw it on TV and heard it on the radio. I am so grateful that America produces such great leaders. The Vice President is an original and he saved the day for me.

MORE: I find it fascinating that neither the title of the book nor the identity of the author are being reported anywhere -- despite the discussion of the event at the author's web site.

Had a conservative, Tea Party-supporting author had thrown a book at the president, and posted his version of what happened, I think the reaction would be very, very different.

MORE: Please bear in mind that I am only speculating about the title of the book, based on the shape of the swan, and the fact that the author has only one book listed for sale at Amazon, and that is the one with the swan on it.

Likewise, just because a man named "Sajid Ali Khan" has admitted he's the guy the Secret Service approached does not necessarily mean that he was. He could theoretically be making his story up.

However, I think it's worth noting that in 2008, a man with the same name wrote "An open letter to Senator Obama."