That One Scene, with the Vicious Murder? "WHAT!?"

"A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors."--Charles Baudelaire, poet (Not the fictional characters from A Series of Unfortunate Events, mind you.)

I keep having the irritating pleasure of reading sequels before actually reading the actual book None of this would happen if authors had the decency to write "Sequel to...", "The Companion Novel to...", or "Book 3 of This One Series You Didn't Start On." But no. Authors want to assume you've read all the books and spent months chewing off your hands in anticipation for the newest installment. They probably think I tattooed its title to my lips or something. Morons.

The fun part is when you're reading through and saying to yourself "I think I'm missing out on something. Is this common knowledge? Am I seriously this vapid?" I mean, I come face-to-face with sentences like

"I remember when I was a werewolf."

My reaction: Whoa, wait, he was a werewolf??

"She looked sad ever since the wolves killed her brother."

She had a brother?! The werewolves killed him?! WHAT'S GOING ON!?

"We became human to be in love. I live in a house instead of the woods and my car smells funny because of the accident."

?!?!?!? I must be reading a sequel again or something!

*All of these quotes were paraphrased segments on the novel I cracked open last month when I was grounded.

But all this taught me two important lessons:

1. Werewolves kill girls' brothers
2. Reading sequels before the books is hilarious

So I have another HALF-HEARTED-CHALLENGE! (since I never seem to finish anything). Comment below of a sequel to a book (can't be Harry Potter) and I'll read it and write what I think happened in the book before it using only what I gathered from the sequel. Sounds good? Excellente.