Leaked file might be the first promo list of iPad books

The authors include Stephen King, Timothy Ferris, Malcolm Gladwell, Dubner & Leavitt, Kennedy, Agassi, Palin and Beck. There's bestselling fiction (The Lovely Bones), fact (A History Of Modern Britain) and autobiography (Wishful Drinking). The prices range from $14.99 (for Too Big To Fail) all the way down to the magic of free (Heat Wave). It's an eclectic list... and it might be the first round of books to be highlighted on the iBooks app in a few weeks.

These titles are sampled from a list of ebooks that one of our tipsters turned up; we were then able to confirm that it was sourced from Apple, and it was found with other assets used to populate the iTunes store UI. It's not immediately clear whether the 112 titles listed are truly destined for sale on the upcoming iPad book store; we thought it might be a list of titles used for the device's launch demonstration, but there are books seen in the video that are not on this list, and vice versa.

The books list includes the pricing information, the associated audiobook ID (a possibility for cross-media sales), the genre and a brief description of the title; the list appears to include the New York Times bestsellers as a separate category. The list of included publishers is as seen here; notably, the overzealous McGraw-Hill is still not present in the mix.

We've asked Apple for comment on this list; what do you think? If this is the promotional list for the iBooks store launch with 100+ core titles -- including a lot of freebies -- is that going to spark your ebook spending appetite? Or would you rather use the presumptive Kindle app for the iPad and keep all your ebook eggs in one basket?

Thanks to Ryan for the tip.