I've been thinking a bit lately about how many books I will never get to read. That's not a new idea, of course, but it's one that makes me sad from time to time. A good way to combat the feeling is to start reading a book and have it be one that I really like. Here are two such books I read recently... I'd heard some buzz about Daniel O'Malley's The Rook before the end of the year, enough to request it at the library. It's a book about a secret government organization in Britain called the Checquy that is responsible for fighting off supernatural menaces and the like (there's also an American Checquy). We learn about this world through the eyes of Myfanwy Thomas, who is also learning about this world. The thing is that Myfanwy isn't exactly Myfanwy. Myfanwy Thomas is a Rook in the Checquy, a position of great importance and power. The Myfanwy we meet at the beginning of the book has the body of Myfanwy but is a completely new personality. The ori...