Normally, this would be my column for reviewing my week in video games; however, something unexpected happened when I left the hotel in Philadelphia: my dad broke the Wii.

As such, I haven't been playing many video games this week. In place of gaming, however, I've decided to catch up on my reading.

I'm writing this in the living room of my great aunt's apartment in lovely Reston, VA. There's a town center within walking distance that has both a Best Buy and a Barnes and Noble. I regularly visit both when I'm in the area, but as this column is about books and not video games, I miraculously have little to say about the former (other than the fact that they know jack shit about calibrating their Rock Band display for an HDTV), and tons to say about the latter.

So with that, let's get literary!
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Currently, I'm reading four novels. This is unusual for me, as my ADD-riddled brain can hardly keep focus for five seconds before becoming bored and looking for something else to do. (NOTE: That's a verrrrry overexaggerated statement.) Regardless, I've come to realize that if I don't consistently work on finishing bokks shortly after I buy them,  I'll eventually lose interest and move on.

But I digress. Here's what I've been reading this week:

• Being a big fan of the anime series, I decided to check out the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex novels. Having finished the first one, The Lost Memory, I decided to pick up Revenge of the Cold Machines. To my surprise, it's not really a novel in the traditional sense; it's actually a trio of stories that follow a common chain of events. I suspect this was done to emphasize the idea of a "stand alone complex"; that is, a series of simple, seemingly unrelated events that connect to a much larger source. It's a really good book, and I've got the third book (White Maze) on deck for when I finish this one.

• In a rare move, I bought the novelization of The Incredible Hulk, partly due to my slight obsession with Edward Norton, and partly because I have yet to see the film in its entirity (the projector broke about 30 mins in when I saw it at the second-run theater). Haven't gotten past what I've already seen, but so far it's good.

• To keep with the novel-based-on--a-comic-book-and-movie-series theme, I picked up the novelization of Batman: No Man's Land by Greg Rucka. Maybe I'm too much of a fanboy, but as far as I'm concerned, if it has Batman in it, I like it (with the exception of the two Joel Schumacher movies, that is). It reminds me of I Am Legend and the last two Resident Evil movies in a way, though without the zombies and Will Smith and such. Speaking of which, I personally enjoyed the Resident Evil trilogy, so you haters can go shove it........but I digress. The point is, Greg Rucka's vision of a Gotham abandoned by the rest of the country is intriguing.

• Finally, a certain book caught my eye, and I just had to buy it. Web Mage by Kelly McCollough is an interesting blend of cyberpunk, fantasy, and pulp/suspense. In a nutshell, magic has been adapted for the 21st century, and spells are basically programs. It sounds stupid, I know, but it works surprisingly well; at times it's difficult to classify what genre to fit the novel in. To me, that spells innovation. If you're a fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, you'll dig this.
  

I've read a book or two of the Dresden Files. I might check out Web Mage.