What We've Been Reading: No e-mails this week, but a surprisingly high number of recent reads gives us plenty to discuss here in our opening. While much of my week was spent reading Point of Impact for our main topic, I had some time to get into some other books as well, namely two more entries in the Sherlock Holmes series, which only gets better and better the longer it goes, and a not-too-surprisingly violent Western by Jack Ketchum. To top it all off, I share some opening thoughts on the Chaos Walking young adult series. Meanwhile, Dietrich ended up pretty disappointed with Ready Player One, but had a much happier experience with the newest Elmore Leonard book, Raylan, where Leonard adds another volume to the character that inspired the outstanding series Justified.

Point of Impact: Our second book club selection, Point of Impact tells the tale of a military sniper who finds himself set up for an assassination he didn't commit. It's a great premise, but do the book's flaws overwhelm its strengths? That's the heart of our debate here, with Dietrich loving the book warts and all, while I find myself unable to get past some major issues with the writing style, dialogue, and characters. Over the course of our discussion, we talk about ballistics details, prison rape, accents, isolation, and even Futurama to try to explain how we feel about this one. Do we persuade each other? Probably not...but it's an interesting listen nonetheless.

Off the Bookshelves: This week, I finally catch up with the recently Oscar-nominated film The Artist and find a lot to love, while also checking out the new HBO series Luck and finding it pretty promising indeed. As for Dietrich, he raves about the surprisingly great 50/50, laments the end of Chuck, enjoys Real Steel well enough, and tries his best to ignore the filmed version of One for the Money.

Emails and What We've Been Reading: We kick off this week with a listener e-mail that inspires a discussion about whether we're right in our predictions of the fall of Barnes and Noble, while our regular listener Robert Kristofferson sharing some funny books he's read as of late. Then it's on to our recent reads, which I kick off with a discussion of Clive Barker's young adult Abarat series, which is imaginative, incredible, and really dark. Meanwhile, Dietrich looks at a Tom Brokaw book surveying the new generation and what's to come, begins reading the comic series Y, The Last Man, and shares some thoughts on the beginning of Ready Player One.

So You Have a Kindle...Now What?: In the wake of a Christmas where the Kindle was the runaway best-selling present, we thought we'd take a week to give a beginner's guide to getting the best books you can for your Kindle or other e-reader. We talk about some of the advantages of disadvantages of free books and public domain stuff, the growing trend of digital lending through major libraries, and also share some feelings about the new burst in ad-supported Kindles and why they may be a better deal than you expect. On top of all that, we share some feelings on other ways to get deals, including author Twitter feeds, Project Gutenberg, Amazon's Daily Deal e-mails, and much, much more.

Off the Bookshelves: It's time for me to dive into some new releases, and I share some thoughts on the incredible Paradise Lost films, the underrated (and pitch-black) Young Adult, and the complex but rewarding Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Also, I give a shout out to the addictive but wonderful Carcassonne, the iPhone game that is really sucking away my free time these days. Dietrich, too, shares some cheap game thoughts on games like Ticket to Ride and Spell Tower, and also finally catches up on the incredible 2011 film Drive. Finally, Dietrich shares some thoughts on the new TV series Alcatraz and Touch, and we join up to share our love for the new season of Justified.