I have 160 pages yet to go in Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian. I've been enjoying every minute of it and, I must confess, I've also been enjoying reading all the negative reviews at Amazon written by Da Vinci Code lovers who are upset that this one is, well, different. Many readers have found it boring. "Apparently being a best seller is not a decent gauge of quality," one reader has concluded. Exactly. Congratulations. Let that essential piece of insight guide your reading selections throughout the rest of your life.

I do think it helped that I read Dracula last month and can see its influences in the Kostova. The sections set in Istanbul have really made me want to get my hands on Orhan Pamuk's memoir as soon as possible.

My audio player from Audible was delivered on Friday, so I've also started listening to Jackson's Dilemma. Since this is an Iris Murdoch, however, I had to make a trip to the library Saturday morning to get the book itself, and I've been referring to it ever since. I have to know how to properly spell names and words while I'm listening, evidently, or else I get distracted. Cue? Que? Oh, Kew!

L. listened to an audio book he downloaded from the public library on the computer this weekend. He's decided to get his own audio player using credit card bonus points. I have a feeling he's going to turn out to be a bigger fan of audio books than I'm going to be.