Don't be too sad, Chris. I've been to Borders countless times, results the same.

I just finished reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The best books I've read in two to three years, and I am not exaggerating. They are everything we wish books to be, and everything literature can hope to achieve. I've heard people describing it as a much darker "Harry Potter." I haven't read Harry Potter, but if the movies are any indication, than it has nothing on His Dark Materials. I am not going to recite the plot here, I will only say that the book begin in a parallel world, with a young, innocent girl playfully sneaking into a Oxford scholar conference room, and does something that triggers a series of adventures that will take her to the end of universes, to the land of dead and back, to the center of the mysteries of being human. I realize all these superlatives are not very meaningful, but if you take one recommendation from me this year, let it be to read His Dark Materials.

Sorry if I sound like zealot, but books and movies are about the only things I get evangelical about. In fact, I will mail the books to the first person who request them. I've come to the obvious conclusion that already read books don't serve much purpose except to sit on the book shelf to make the owner feel sophisticated. A great book unread is just a tragedy so it's better for these books to find new readers.

oh, one warning, if you're fiercely loyal to organized religion, this series is probably not for you.

p.s., in case you are wondering, I will use media mail and not going to charge you for it.