Week of April 8: Watch Any Good Books Lately?

By Sylvia Gurinsky

I started reading "Rum & Razors," part of the series of books based on the classic program "Murder, She Wrote," "by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain."

Jessica Fletcher, of course, was the character played so wonderfully on the CBS series by Angela Lansbury from 1984-96. Bain is the real writer of the "Murder, She Wrote" series and author of the book "Coffee, Tea or Me?"

Through the 1990s, successful series frequently triggered successful books. Comedies such as "The Partridge Family" and "That Girl" and dramas such as the original "Hawaii Five-O" and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." came complete with a series of adventurous, not-too-long readers that would frequently go to places the shows didn't - especially the comedies. "That Girl's" Ann Marie (Marlo Thomas) terrorized by people living a real-life "Wuthering Heights?" Never happened in the series, but it did in a book penned by Paul W. Fairman.

Series for teens and science fiction fans, of course, have been principal sources for book writers. "Star Trek," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Full House" have plenty of selections.

eBay is a primary source for finding such books. Even stories from more obscure series, such as 1970s "Nancy" about a president's daughter, are available in paperback.

The eBay search starts in the 1950s with such shows as "Gunsmoke" and "77 Sunset Strip." Just about every scripted television genre one can think of is covered.

So Happy Reading! And until next week, Happy Viewing!