Books, in brief

I'm still churning through Spartacus: Vengeance, hence the not much of anything new here.  I like it and Liam McIntyre is doing a fine job but I still miss Andy Whitfield.  I've read a couple of books as well:

This Book is Full of Spiders - Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It by David Wong.  I think I liked this sequel to John Dies at the End better than the first book.  I found it easier to follow, the story moving much more linearly.  David inadvertently unleashes a plague of parasitic spider monsters that turn the townsfolk of [Undisclosed] into zombies, for all intents and purposes.  Then he, John, Amy and Molly have to stop the spider-zombie apocalypse before it spreads to the rest of the world.  Funny, fast-paced and pretty gruesome/gory in spots.

"Who Could That Be at This Hour?" by Lemony Snicket.  I am a big fan of Mr. Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" books (Full disclosure: I went to college with Daniel Handler, Lemony Snicket's alter ego, and he is every bit as brilliant, funny, articulate and talented as you might imagine).  "WCTBaTH?" is the first book in a new series, "All the Wrong Questions" - a children's noir series.  This first book follows young Snicket in his first apprenticeship as he tries to solve a mystery and, in doing so, asks wrong question after wrong question.  It's a good start but I think it's been a little more challenging for Handler to find his voice here.