OK, so it's January, and just reading the titles of the films newly released this week is kind of depressing. Hotel for Dogs? Paul Blart: Mall Cop? My Bloody Valentine 3D? I won't rule out the possibility that these are fine, fine films, but the odds aren't favorable. Especially since you can't even see 3D movies in 3D (yet) in Burlington.

My strategy for getting through this slow season (besides renting movies) is finally to read the books on which the much-awaited films that haven't hit town yet were based. That way, when they finally do arrive, I'll have the original source to compare them with. I'll also be spoiled for the plot twists, but oh well.

I have to get truckin', because Revolutionary Road is due to reach Vermont by the end of this month, and it's sitting on my shelf unread. Also not read (yet): Cormac McCarthy's The Road, but the release date of that Viggo Mortensen film adaptation has been pushed back, suggesting it wasn't, er, Oscar worthy. We shall see.

 I took the easy route over the holidays — instead of reading those two classics, I devoured Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen (which is also a "classic," as any comics nerd will tell you). Interesting thing about this latest big-budget superhero-comics adaptation: You can already see huge posters plugging its March 6 release in the Palace 9, yet a rights lawsuit that threatened to block that release was only just resolved. Turns out 20th Century Fox will get a share of the profits from the Warner film because they bought the rights a million years ago and never really relinquished them, and blah, blah, blah.

Meanwhile, the Internet hordes are hotly debating whether Watchmen will be worth watching. My feeling: The original comic wasn't Dostoyevsky, but it was pretty damn good for a superhero comic (and a semi-satire of the whole genre). Even if the movie sucks in comparison, it could be a bright spot in a dead season.

More importantly for us geeks, the second half of the last season of "Battlestar Galactica" starts tonight. Who is the fifth Cylon? My money is on Romo Lampkin's disappearing cat.

Anyone else reading movie books?