I went into a Border's Book store the other day and didn't buy anything. I saw things I could buy, but every time I looked at a title I had my mind's eye flash on a book I hadn't read.

There are some rules about books I've accepted over the years: if it is Stephen King, you don't need to buy it. It will be in a thrift store for a dollar in a few months. You don't need a limited edition hardcover. If you read it, it lowers the value. So buy a paperback and underline all the good stuff. No one recalls the average best seller ten years later.

I read Ira Levin's ROSEMARY'S BABY recently. The thing was born with horns? In all the animal kingdom, mammal offspring do not grow horns and claws in vitro. Oh well , so much for logic.

Also recently bought another "new" car. It get thirty five miles to a gallon. As opposed to a Hummer, which gets eight miles per gallon and compensates you for your small penis.

Both WALL E and HELLBOY II are good films. Sure to be nominees for The Hugo Awards, and both have solid stories sought after in SF films by its fanboys. WALL E does spend a lot of time exploring SF cliche's that were beaten to death in Hugo Gernbeck's AMAZING STORIES (late 1920's), and examined in E. M. Forester's THE MACHINE STOPS. What's new is the presentation and format. HELLBOY II can be looked at for its storyline, informativeness, special effects and promises of another film. Just think of it as a Harry Potter movie without those creepy kids, and its J.K.Rowling's long nightmare. Hellboy has a TV on and it seems to be a fragment of a POLICE ACADEMY. Ron Perlman was in #7.

I read GEEK magazine. After the above paragraph, could you need not guess? I also read FORTEAN TIMES and SFX. WIRED AND ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY are also avidly read in the house.

I buy three newspapers a day. We have four dogs.