DATELINE–Baltimore, Md.

Solution to chronic cellphone use offered by popular self-help book.

When Samuel Mohrs turned 43 this past May, he received a water color drawing from his 4 year-old daughter, an all-expense paid trip to London from his corporate board, an autographed photo of Michael Jordan from his brother, and a self-help book from his wife. Surprisingly, it was the book that changed his life.

The book, called Roaming Within Range: Creating and managing successful relationship with cellphones, debuted at number five on last week’s the New York Times Best Seller’s list.Written by Abbie Tal-Ronnel, the hardcover book which offers advice on how to best use mobile telephones has pushed Sugar Busters! out of the top five for the first time in 6 months and is quickly gaining ground on the top-selling If Life Is A Game, These Are the Rules by Cherie Carter-Scott.

The popularity of Tal-Ronnel’s cellular self-help guide comes as no surprise now that wireless telephony is as widespread as it is novel. As cellphones become more and more affordable, the hidden costs of constant access are increasingly apparent to those who can’t seem to live without it. For Mohrs? wife, Melinda, her husband’s use of a cellphone had become a strain on their marriage. “When I gave him Roaming Within Range I wrote in the front page, ‘Here’s the marital aid you asked for,” she jokingly recalls. Mohrs started reading the book on the couple’s 10-day trip to London and the results, in his words, were “mind-bending.”

Although Mohrs still uses his cellphone several times a day in the course of his duties as the CFO of a high-tech public relations firm, he claims the book has helped him to “set boundaries” that allow him to get the most out of these conversations.

Setting boundaries is, in fact, the subject of the book’s first chapter, “Good Reception vs. Being Welcome.” For Tal-Ronnel, setting boundaries is the only way wireless technology can be integrated into the world of social and business relations. She cites the increasing disdain for cellphone users who hold private conversations, often loudly, while in public places as only one indicator that “unlimited roaming” may be too much of a good thing.

While the book is full of cheerful pointers on such disparate topics as battery life and the ergonomics of handheld devices, it also offers some straight talk on wireless conversating. In one section, Tal-Ronnel upbraids cellphone users who talk – not without listening – but without looking around:

“You are entitled to your privacy. The law protects you from eavesdroppers who might intercept the signal emitted by your phone. Now, ask yourself: are not the people around you entitled to their privacy? What law protects them from having to listen to the isolated sound of your voice as you talk to someone who is not even there? There is no such law, of course. But there is something even better to protect you from intruding on other people’s privacy while preserving your own: common courtesy.”

Still, what’s really behind the astonishing commercial success of Roaming Within Range is not a Luddite attack on wireless communications, but a calm and reassuring set of instructions that help cellphone users and the people around them to get along.

Chief among the book’s suggestions is one for the new owner of a wireless telephone: “Create an action plan. Decide before you make your first call, when and where you will and will not use your cellphone. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll agonize over every ring, beep and vibration.”

For Mohrs, this meant creating a map of his world that could guide him in the decision-making process. “When I’m in the kitchen,” he explains, “the phone is off. When I’m at the movies, only my pager is on and it’s set to vibrate.” But Mohrs’ map extends to cover even those areas where the use of his cellular phone may not inconvenience others so much as embarrass him.

“I can only use the phone in lobbies, hallways and the like if there is a set of public phones nearby,” he adds, “and you have no idea how much relief these simple rules have given me – and my wife.”

For Mohrs and the thousands of others who have also taken to Roaming Within Range, the book is at its best when it explains the source of many common complaints associated with cellular phone use. From restaurants to crowded streets, this Baedeker’s for the next millennium offers flexible rules “maximizing your phone use while minimizing your impact on the people around you.”

And in case you’re wondering how Roaming Within Range comes down on the subject of cars and cellphones, the book sides with the governments of Great Britain, Australia and Sweden. Any guesses? That’s right. It’s a definite no-no..