A Series of Unfortunate Events
"The Bad Beginning," "The Reptile Room," and "The Wide Window,"
by Lemony Snicket

I read the first three books in the series, which made up the material covered in the recent film. I don't think I'll read the rest of the series—I found it to be repetitive and not nearly as clever as I thought it would be. There are a few little gems here and there from Lemony Snicket, the fictional author, but not enough to make reading worthwhile. The whole series is the anti-happy ending, but the novelty soon wears off and each unfortunate event becomes drearier than the next. I am told that the later books are much better, but it's a shame that it took 13 books to get to that point.