I know the increasing tide of spam is the bane of all e-mail users' existences, but the latest stuff I'm getting is absurd.

It's no surprise that I have several e-mail addresses. I've taken care not to publish or actually use some of them, so they should remain relatively spam-free. That was the case of my Charter.net address until last week. After months of non-activity, this e-mail address is suddenly deluged in spam. Not only is it spam, but it's viral -- each e-mail address contains a .scr or whatever. And it's every message that includes an iffy attachment.

I know it's a common tactic for spammers to send out messages to computer-generated combinations of letters coupled with a domain in the hopes of hitting a legit address. I've seen it happen on several of my other accounts. This is the first time that I've seen such a deluge of pap laden with virii.

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Booknotes:For the first time in a while, I read two totally new books. The first was The Sweater Letter detailing the investigation of a suspicious hunting accident in Ontonagon County. The investigation by the Michigan State Police showed that the husband killed his wife and tried to make it look like an accident.

Aside from some jarring asides that don't add much to the narrative, I thought it was a decent page-turner detailing a rural homicide investigation.

The other book I read was Stone and Anvil from the Star Trek: New Frontiers range of books. I had been putting reading it off because it's the latest in a series of books by author Peter David that I haven't read. However, getting into it was really easy and it was a pretty enjoyable read.

And like they say on Reading Rainbow: These and other great books should be available at your public library. Or Amazon.com. Whichever.