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I found this article on ICv2 interesting:

JMS Off Bab 5 Novels?
From Mongoose Publishing
December 19, 2006

The saga of J. Michael Straczynski and the Babylon 5 novels from Mongoose Publishing took another turn recently. After agreeing to "give Mongoose a second chance" by reviewing the upcoming series of Mongoose Babylon 5 novels for accuracy and "level of writing" (see "JMS To Oversee Babylon 5 Novels"), the Babylon 5 creator has washed his hands of the books, according to a post on his blog.

Complaining that the novels he was shown were "unprofessionally put together and edited," JMS concluded "my feeling is that as well-intentioned as they might be, they don't really have the chops when it comes to fiction... so I've stepped back and said I really can't be a part of this process because I can't endorse something if I don't think the quality is going to be there. So it's between them and WB (Warner Brothers) at this point."

Asked for comment, Matthew Sprange of Mongoose Publishing said that "the situation is not resolved," and that more news would be available later this week.

I've watched Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" for longer than Jon Stewart has been the host.  I preferred Craig Kilborn to Jon Stewart, but I've grown to appreciate Stewart's sense of humor and the excellent performances by the rest of The Daily Show cast.  Lewis Black, for example, is one of my favorite comedians.  Since the last presidential election, though, it seems to me that the show's material is more and more complimentary of the Democratic party and increasingly venomous toward the Republican party, rather than taking approximately equal jabs at both parties the way it initially did.  (And let's face it, there are losers in all the political parties and none of them is perfect, so I know there is plenty of material available without focusing on any one party exclusively.)

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Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" is a rather interesting place.  Firmly located in the realm of fantasy, the universe of Discworld combines traditional fantasy elements like vampires, golems, witches, trolls, and wizards with concepts from the "real world" like equal rights for men and women, technology, and - in this case - mail delivery.  The Discworld books have a little of that same kind of British humor we see in Monty Python or Douglas Adams' books, combined with some humor that is uniquely Pratchett's.

From the title "Going Postal" one might think this is a book about a person losing their grip on sanity and killing lots of people, but that's not the story at all here.

"Going Postal" opens with the main character Moist Von Lipwig being sentenced to death and about to hang.  Shortly after he hangs, he becomes unconscious.  When he awakens, the local official tells him he was hanged expertly, within an inch of his life.  He now has two options.  He may take a civil service job that is being offered to him at the post office, or he may walk through a door leading out of the room.  After learning that on the other side of the door is a pit leading to his death, Moist decides that becoming the new Postmaster is the better option. 

Note: I did not read the printed version of this novel, but listened to the audiobook version, which was unabridged.  However, since it's a complete re-creation of the novel, I think this qualifies me for a review of the book and the audiobook since there's not much difference.

Having watched the previous Harry Potter movies (except "Azkaban"), I had a pretty good picture of the world and the characters depicted in them.  Although the author does a decent job of filling someone in if they have some understanding of the books' environment, if you were going to read this having never seen the movies or the previous books, chances are you'd be a bit in the dark about a lot of things. I believe this because I heard references made to the "Prisoner of Azkaban" events in the book that I didn't quite understand.