John Webster is going to talk about "the intricacies and legacy of Shakespeare" for like an hour or something at University Book Store.

Diane Ackerman is up at Third Place Books tonight. Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses is essential reading, but her new book, Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day, looks way too woo-woo for the average reader. It is a book which celebrates a crane that Ackerman saw a while back.

The reading of the night is at Town Hall. David Byrne will read from his new book, Bicycle Diaries. In a great review in this week's book section, Brendan Kiley says that the book is not so great:

Byrne writes about riding his bicycle in cities around the world—New York, Berlin, Manila, Istanbul, and others—and what he does while visiting them. You'd think David Byrne would have a fascinating life (and he sometimes does), but a lot of it is standard-issue travel-journal stuff.

But Byrne himself is great:

He makes excellent music (duh), films (True Stories), books (The New Sins), furniture (his dresser-chairs), and PowerPoint presentations ("Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information"). He's a genius and that's all there is to it.

If you haven't read Byrne's books before, you should read Mr. Kiley's review. I guarantee he will point you in the right direction.

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.