Persistable Tutorial

I was studying the Tutorial on Persistent sp Functions/classes
I was trying to cookie cutter a code to manage a database and can not grasp the syntax.
What has to be altered for say a TableName 'Books'
BookName 'Hunting'
Author 'Russell James' ?
I have another example on my config.php
$books_table = "books";
but how to define 'Persistent'? is muddling me up after 6 hrs.

<PHP>
$newBook = new Book;
$newBook->title = $_POST['title'];
$newBook->PersistNew();

$newAuthor = new Author;
$newAuthor->firstname = $_POST['firstname'];
$newAuthor->lastname = $_POST['lastname'];
$newAuthor->PersistNew();

$newBookAuthorLink = new BookAuthorLink;
$newBookAuthorLink->author = $newAuthor->id;
$newBookAuthorLink->book = $newBook->id;
$newBookAuthorLink->PersistNew();
</php>