(no subject)

Reading Material:	The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox: Mending the Gap Between Science and the Humanities by Stephen Jay Gould
	+ asst. romance novels and children's books

One of my favorite romance authors, her last couple books have not been my favorites. One of the reasons is the increased involvement of the supernatural, which confused me at first because I'm generally very fond of 'paranormal romance'. The other is uninteresting premises. What I figured out is that I don't like ghosts. To be more specific, ghosts that mostly occupy themselves with generating whiffs of their favorite perfume, playing their favorite musical instruments loudly when most folks would really like to be sleeping, and giving their posthumous blessings to later romantic entanglements of their surviving partners. I just don't care for those sorts at all. I'm really bored with the technique whereby 95% of the early manifestations of the ghost prove to be from material causes, supposedly leaving the reader in suspense as to whether there is actually a haint involved. Someone in the household, (abetted by the ever-pleasing 'secret' passageways) is actually playing the instrument, working the perfume bottle, opening the flue on the fireplace so that it moans... but the last manifestation, (or the last handful for authors drunk on the ease and efficacy and emotionalism of this plot crutch, present author unfortunately included) turns out to be clearly a shade at work. Ooh-friggin-Ah. 'But Dinah was in the conservatory with the lead pipe, she couldn't possibly have been rearranging the china the way Lady Chandler most liked it when she was alive.' Ah well.

In other news we are all enjoying our annual colds. Bleh.