Ah, sorry perhaps I wasn't being clear.

At the end of each individual post, there's a link to see the next one. It's very much the same concept as your next/previous buttons, which you agreed shouldn't be opened in a new window. That's primarily what I take issue with.

Personally I'd also argue that the TOC shouldn't be new windows either, that the user should have to take explicit action to follow a link in a non-standard way. But reasonable people can disagree about the merits of this in certain cases.

Sharlin's comment below also touches on this.