how to make a book?

I need a program for my subject. We are asked to bookbind some pieces of poetry and short-story. what would be the best program to do those?

If you know what you're doing, L^AT_EX2e (through TeXnic center + miktex on windows for example, or Kile in KDE) can do the most, and it's free, too. Adobe Acrobat (not free) can do pretty things too. If all else fails, Word or Ooo.org's Writer should let you do enough. At any rate, all that will only let you do the typesetting (what will be printed). After that, binding is not a software matter, but proper equipment.

if you don't know what your doing, pay someone who does

just minor things. like page layouts etc. how about adobe pagemaker?

Print all the pages on something like Windows Publisher. Printed back to back how you want it layed out. then take it to somewhere that does colour photocopies, prints and posters etc. Sometimes they will bind them for you, although I think you would probably end up paying quite a bit. Depending on the size of it or the number of pages, you could just get out the trusty stapler or get a booklet binder.