my $file = 'books/bookLIST.txt';
open my $info, $file or die "Could not open $file: $!";

while(my $line = <$info>)  {
    foreach ($line) {
        chop;
        @vlinks = split(/:/,$_) ;
        print "<tr><td><a href=\"bookDETAIL.cgi?book=$vlinks[1]\">$vlinks[0]</a></td><td>$vlinks[2]</td><td>$vlinks[3]</a></td></tr>"
    }    
}

# each line in the text file is as follows:
# Title of Book:title_of_book:<number of pages>:Author's Name