One of the joys in reviewing the new season of Showtime's Dexter has been in the preparation. I did just re-watched the previous season. I watched all the other seasons, read every interview I could find and even dove into a couple of reviews, both good and bad. I even got an advanced copy of the Dexter video game for the iPhone.

But while watching that iconic opening of Dexter's mourning routine, I noticed the credit to Jeff Lindsay, the author of the first Dexter novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter on which the whole show is based. I picked it up in the library and even though I knew most of what happened from the show's first season, it was still a very enjoyable read. It was dark, funny, foreboding and every other adjective you would expect to hear from a review of a great mystery novel.

The best part is that even if you watch the show, you can still enjoy the books since they take very different paths that still provide plenty of good twists and turns. Any Dexter fan would enjoy them.

It looks like early speculation was correct. CBS is "repurposing" the 12-episode first season of Showtime's hit series Dexter. The NYTimes' TV Decoder reports the network-friendly version will air on Sundays beginning February 7th at 10 pm/9 Central. Dexter has been a critical and ratings darling for Showtime, helping it surpass HBO as the pay-channel du jour for compelling scripted drama at water coolers everywhere.

This gives you one solid month to speculate as to what the censors will have to cut to fit into the time limits and decency standards of broadcast network television. The 10/9 time slot will allow some leniency, and with splatter and gore as staples on shows like CSI and Criminal Minds for years, there may not be as much editing as one would think necessary, save for commercial breaks.

With the writers strike pulling a black cloud over our collective television set, have you been feeling super-sad? Do you feel lost, without a sense of direction, now that your favorite show has run out of new episodes? Do empty pints of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia and fresh receipts from the video game store litter your home, serving as a constant reminder that you love TV, you breathe TV, and you need TV to fill your life? I certainly hope not, because that would be kind of pathetic.

What's weird is that before the invention of television, there was this thing called "books". People used their eyes, just as they use them for watching television, to "read" these books. Books are hard to come by these days, but if you visit the library, they might have one or two, hidden in the back room. Please note you may have to slip an Alexander Hamilton or wear a low-cut shirt to gain access to the book room. Anyway, books are a great way to escape reality (TV). If you manage to track a few down, why don't you pick up a book or two while the writers strike is in effect? If the idea of straying so far away from television terrifies you, here are some books that aren't too far off point, so you can join in nice and easy.

The Premise: Michael C. Hall (of Six Feet Under fame) plays Dexter Morgan, a forensic investigator and blood-spatter analyst for the Miami-Dade Police Department. But that's only his day job. Beneath his chipper attitude is a dark secret, one that harbors his disgust for those who do wrong. When he isn't investigating a murder for the boys in blue, Dexter takes matters into his own hands. An efficient killer, he hunts down and brutally murders the horrible people (child molesters, rapists, other serial killers) that actually deserve to die. When he isn't chopping up his latest victim, Dex deals with the rest of his mundane life: mentoring a sister who's also a cop, fending off sexual advances from his boss, and trying to figure out a girlfriend who he doesn't really want to sleep with.