I could page through the first book tonight if you want, since I seem to be up for doing anything that is not writing the book that's due very, very soon.

Hee! Who am I to tell you not to procrastinate?

I suspect, from Jake's description, that I should just give this series a miss. Talking to the spider? Giving it a personality? I think that would probably involve holding the spider and whatnot, and just typing that made me break out in goosebumps.

Yeah, I'm willing to bet he holds it, too.

If he can dig it out of the pit of despair his bedroom, I'll look through it tonight. I've been half meaning to read the books anyway.

Back on high-school/YA books -- I just finished Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. The plot is more or less lifted straight out of the movie "Before Sunrise" -- boy and girl meet, boy and girl click, boy and girl spend the entire evening, night, and next morning together. But it's really good. It's just a wee bit pretentious, and it tries a little too hard (though mostly at the beginning), but on the whole it's really good. It's got some sharp writing and endearing characters. Go read it.

I loved Nick & Norah too, Steph!

Currently reading: I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. It's marketed as YA (at least, we have it in the YA section at my library) but I don't quite know why. I mean, it's appropriate for YA, but there's nothing about it that obviously marks it as such, to me. It's about a 19-year-old cab driver in a suburb of Sydney who, in the opening scene, helps to foil a bank robbery. Shortly afterwards, someone starts sending him playing cards in the mail with cryptic messages, mostly people's names and addresses, and he has to figure out what he's supposed to do with those names. It took me a while to get into it, but I'm really digging it now. And I have NO idea how it's going to end.

Kate, a friend of mine has HIGHLY recommended Zusak to me recently. She also read The Book Thief, which also sounded interesting. But she was pushing these books on me in a "YOU MUST READ THIS OR YOU WILL DIE" way, which doesn't happen often, so I'm intrigued.

I mean, she said that Death in The Book Thief has supplanted Pratchett's Death as her favorite Death character. Damn, right?

I mean, she said that Death in The Book Thief has supplanted Pratchett's Death as her favorite Death character. Damn, right?

Ha! It's true, Pratchett's Death is hard to top. I haven't read The Book Thief yet, but several people at my library have, including the assistant director, who loved it so much she ordered another copy for the adult fiction collection (the first one is in YA). It's definitely on my list.

OOH! OOOH!

I'm reading my first Neil Gaiman book!!

Which one?

American Gods.

I just got done reading the second of the newest Nora Roberts trilogies, Dance of the Gods. Not bad--since it's the second book, no need to do as much set-up, so a bit more emphasis on the developing romance between the slayer and the shape-shifter. But, it did strike me as even more derivative of Buffy than the first book, since it did have the slayer as the heroine of this story.

At this point, I'd have to put this series in the bottom part of the top third of her books, so not horrible, just not the peak of NR's capabilities, IMO.