But people weren’t exactly lining up to buy "The Confession’’ at book stores in Greater Trenton yesterday, its first day of sale.

Borders Books in West Windsor had it marked down 30 percent by noon and a television reporter at the store couldn’t find anyone to look through the book while on camera.

At the Barnes & Noble store in the MarketFair mall on Route 1 in West Windsor, store manager Jeffrey D. Parsons said he’d experienced "the usual" buildup to a highly-hyped book.

"People were definitely talking about the McGreevey book, but we see that with a lot of books. This weekend will determine, to a large extent, if this is big or not."

"I am definitely not interested," said Joe Malone, of Plainsboro. "His personal life is his personal life. I just wish he was a better governor."

McGreevey, who announced his resignation in a stunning, televised speech on Aug. 12, 2004, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he is "stumbling and progressing’’ on a spiritual journey.

"What I didn’t understand was that being gay, as with everything else, is a grace from God, and that by accepting that grace and by accepting that reality, by embracing that truth, I could authentically be who I was,’’ he said, sitting in the living room of the home he shares with his companion, Australian-born financier Mark O’Donnell.

McGreevey’s memoir, "The Confession,’’ was out in bookstores Tuesday, coinciding with the airing of an interview with Oprah Winfrey taped last week in Chicago. The AP interview was his second extensive one since his political collapse was heralded with his now-famous "I am a gay American’’ speech, made with his wife and parents by his side.

McGreevey on Tuesday acknowledged that his book contains some "messy, shameful, sinful’’ passages, including details of his relationship with an Israeli that he says began when he was governor and a brand new father.

"Over the past two years my focus has been on protecting my daughter and establishing our lives as private citizens, and I will continue to do so. I have no further comment at this time,’’ she wrote in an e-mail to the AP on Tuesday.

On the Winfrey show, McGreevey discussed back-alley trysts behind a Washington, D.C. synagogue and anonymous sexual contacts with scores of men in bookstores and rest stops.

McGreevey said he first sensed he was gay when he was 6 or 7 years old, but was unable to understand his feelings. The former governor struggled when asked about his intimate moments with his wife.

The show aired on the East Coast shortly before McGreevey appeared at a book signing in his hometown of Woodbridge sponsored by a New Jersey gay rights organization. McGreevey also has signed on to do NBC’s "Today,’’ ABC’s "The View’’ and "Hannity & Colmes’’ on Fox News, all today.

More than 200 people attended the Woodbridge event. McGreevey chatted amiably with crowd members, shaking hands and smiling. Though he appeared to be back in his element, he dismissed any notion that the event was political.

He spoke briefly, thanking people for coming. "It’s good to be home where people love you simply for you are. That’s God’s greatest blessing,’’ he said.

McGreevey, 49, retreated from the limelight and had remained publicly silent since resigning. He writes in the book that he was forced to quit after a man he loved, whom he put on the state payroll as homeland security adviser, threatened to reveal his homosexuality unless he was paid millions to stay quiet.

Two years later, McGreevey says he’s moved on and is now in a committed relationship with O’Donnell. He says he’s even thankful to the man, Golan Cipel, for forcing him to shed his false life.

Cipel, who has repeatedly denied being gay, has said McGreevey forced himself on him and insists that McGreevey’s portrayal of their relationship in the book is untrue.

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