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Monday, August 17, 2009

Books Reading Tonight

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 10:22 AM

Yes, and here we are. Thanks to Superstar Books Intern Corey Kahler for doing a fabulous job covering Reading Tonight while I was unexpectedly called away. There are two books events today.

This noon at the Central Library, it's time yet again for Thrilling Tales. People who are skilled at reading will read two stories aloud for an audience of lunching downtown professionals and possibly a few hobos. The stories this time are "Revival Meeting" by Dannie Plachta and "Of Missing Persons" by Jack Finney. If you haven't read Finney and you're in the mood for something light and propulsive, you should give him a shot. If you like "Of Missing Persons," Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Time and Again are great, fun sci-fi reads.

And at Elliott Bay Book Company tonight, David Eagleman, who works at the Laboratory for Perception and Action at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, will read from Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives. I was ready to call this hoodoo, but I did a little research on the book and the blurbs from people like Phillip Pullman and Geoff Dyer—blurbs that mention names like Italo Calvino—have intrigued me. I'm going to call this the reading of the night. If you go to this reading and it doesn't work for you, you can give me one (1) noogie as punishment.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

Comments (4) RSS

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SUM really is a fantastic book. I live in Philly, and Eagleman was supposed to do a reading here, but it unfortunately didn't work out. Some stories are better than others, but it's such an interesting concept, and very well-executed, so I will back up Paul's recommendation and say that if you go and don't like it, come to Philadelphia and let me have it. He's also writing (published already?) a text on Synesthesia and it looks interesting.

Posted by whisky tango foxtrot on August 17, 2009 at 10:38 AM

Radio Lab, an NPR podcast, has been doing a feature on life after death for the past few weeks and have featured this book. It sounds like a fantastic read, but I have really enjoyed listening to the stories being read by Jeffery Tambor. I think this is one of those books that works better as an audio book. I will make it out to this one because I'd love to hear the author read a story or two.

Posted by Enigma