Sean - Dexter in the Dark, by Jeff Lindsay (303 pages)

No more gray. Life had returned to a place of bright blades and dark shadows, a place where Dexter hid behind the daylight so that he could leap out of the night and be what he was meant to be: Dexter the Avenger, Dark Driver for the thing once more inside.

And I felt a very real smile spread across my face as Rita Stepped up to stand beside me, a smile that stayed with me through all the pretty words and hand-holding, because once more, forever and always, I could say it again.

I do. And yes, I will, I really will.

And soon.

Sean - The Hours, by Michael Cunningham (230 pages)

"Come on," Julia calls cheerfully over her shoulder, over the synthetic orange brilliance of her backpack.

Mary stands for a moment, watching. She believes she has never seen anything so beautiful. If you could love me, she thinks, I'd do anything. Do you understand? Anything.

"Come on," Julia calls again, and Mary hurries after her, hopelessly, in agony (Julia does not love her, not like that, and never will), on her way to buy new boots.

Sean - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King (288 pages)

"Another argument in favor of writing courses has to do with the men and women who teach them. There are thousands of talented writers at work in America, and only a few of them (I think the number might be as low as five percent) can support their families and themselves with their work. There's always some grant money available, but it's never enough to go around. As for government subsidies for creative writers, perish the thought. Tobacco subsidies, sure. Research grants to study the motility of unpreserved bull sperm, of course. Creative-writing subsidies, never. Most voters would agree, I think. With the exception of Norman Rockwell and Robert Frost, America has never much cared about her creative people; as a whole, we're more interested in commemorative plates from the Franklin Mint and Internet greeting-cards. And if you don't like it, it's a case of tough titty said the kitty, 'cause that's just the way things are. Americans are a lot more interested in TV quiz shows than in the short fiction of Raymond Carver."

Sean - An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green (229 pages)

"What are you doing?" Colin folded his arms on the table and then put his head down.

"Well, while you were in the bathroom, I sat down at this picnic table here in Bumblefug, Kentucky, and noticed that someone had carved that GOD HATES FAG, which, aside from being a grammatical nightmare, is absolutely ridiculous. So I'm changing it to 'God hates Baguettes.' It's tough to disagree with that. Everybody hates baguettes."

"J'aime les baguettes," Colin muttered.

"You aime lots of stupid crap."

Sean - oPtion$: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody by Fake Steve Jobs (249 pages)

"It seems to me that for two hundred and fifty bucks an hour the guy could go a little easier on me. But anyway, he's right. That's how it feels. Like I'll die. It terrifies me.

"Yes, I survived the last time Apple threw me out. But this time, I'm not so sure. I'm fifty-one years old. I've had cancer. I'm not as tough as I used to be.

"And even last time nearly killed me. I was thirty years old and living by myself in a mansion in Woodside with no furniture, just a huge stereo system and pillows on the floor. For months I did nothing. I'd take acid for days on end. The record was fourteen days, and believe me, that was a life-changing episode. But mostly it was this Keebler-Kahn type period in my life, with the eight stages of mourning, like anger, denial, anger again, then more anger, then rage, vindictiveness, more anger, and then revenge."

Scores So Far:

Monica: 2,534 pages read.

Sean: 2,357 pages read.

Monica Leads: by 177 pages read.

Sean - Dearly Devoted Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay (292 pages)

"So I was doped, tightly bound, and all alone. But there's always some positive to every situation, if you just look hard enough, and after trying to think of one for a moment, I realized that I had to admit that so far I had not been attacked by rabid rats."