Series-itis

I grabbed a trade paperback copy of The Masque of the Black Tulip at Target, along with a copy of Nora Roberts' Rebellion. And at the library yesterday I saw that the next Willig book, The Deception of the Emerald Ring, was on the shelf, so I checked it out. Only to be irritated to learn that this third book is not about the Pink Carnation, but about new characters who were vague parts of the family/social circle in earlier books. Meh.

I checked Willig's website and learned that the fourth Pink Carnation book was going to be about a character introduced in the 2nd book, not the spy known as Pink Carnation...except that has been pushed off to the 5th book because a side character of this 3rd book demanded her story. Tentatively, six books are planned with the possibility of more. Willig had my attention with the first book, which I thought was a novel way to tell a story: a less boring version of Possession. I loved the second book, but my attention is wandering and I doubt that I'm going to hang around through all six books.

Confession: I have never liked Will Ferrell, and don't find him to be funny in general. But I loved Stranger Than Fiction.

Coming soon: review for AngieW's reading challenge.

Idea/reminder for tomorrow's SBD: what comes first.

Huh?

What does the fact that Litvinenko's death wasn't "violent" have to do with any involvement by Putin? *scratches head* Does the fact that he wasn't shot or beaten to death automatically rule out Putin or his circle? And if it does, what does that say about the Russian president? That the violent death of his enemies is normal? I really don't understand Putin's comment.

And along the same lines, I'm still waiting for copies of Anna Politkovskaya's books to arrive.

E-bookwise reader

I forgot to mention: I took my e-bookwise reader with me to Mom's on Turkey Day. I usually watch TV and read in between bouts of eating and visiting with relatives; instead of a paperback, the reader went along. Everyone who saw it asked about it. My aunt particularly was intrigued. Her son Daniel, who is a junior in high school, is not keeping up with his reading, in part because he's utterly bored by Nathaniel Hawthorne (blech to The Scarlet Letter) and in part because he's not interested in sitting around with books. But he loves electronic toys. So she's thinking about an e-reader of some sort as a portable "toy" to tempt him to read more. If he's intrigued by toys, the e-bookwise may be not the best choice, since it is a dedicated reader...but giving him too many options (like games, web access, etc.) would reduce the likelihood that he would use the toy to actually read. We'll see. I think she's still hoping to entince him to read the old-fashioned way.