Henry Winkler reads from his book for middle readers today at Third Place Books.
Allison Cobb & CE Putnam read at Pilot Books tonight. Cobb is an inventive and experimental poet. Putnam is a former co-curator of Subtext and a tireless poet who once wrote a very funny poem with the name “Steve” as a punchline.
A little further down the street tonight, Ed Lin reads at Elliott Bay Book Company. Ed Lin is the author of Snakes Can’t Run, which is a sequel to his pretty great 2008 novel, This Is a Bust. He is a nice guy, and is very funny. I wrote about Lin’s deft reading skills way back in my first month on the job. He also wrote a piece for us about his previous Seattle reading experience.
Either of those readings would be fun.
But today is also Free Comic Book Day, in which just about every comic book store in town is giving away free comic books to anyone who walks in the door. I suggest you go to a couple of different stores, pick up an array of free comics, (buy a couple, too) and spend the afternoon knee-deep in comics. The neatest-sounding FCBD event is at the Fantagraphics Bookstore in Georgetown, where local cartoonist Jim Woodring will present copies of Weathercraft and Other Unusual Stories, which is the FCBD comic from Fantagraphics. It is an excerpt of Woodring’s upcoming full-length comic book, which is the first ever full-length comic book of Woodring’s career. Exciting!
If you need some help picking out comics, you can find four ten-word comic book reviews written by me in the print edition and also over here.
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.
Ooh! I just finished “This is a Bust” and had a funny interchange with Ed via email afterward. I didn’t realize he was in town today — thanks, Paul.
Of course, I just bought a thick Richard Price novel this morning. When am I going to have time to read Lin’s new one?
You’ll probably do a separate thread on this, Paul, but there have been many awesome individualized deals for comic book day all around town. The traffic was horrible so I could only hit two shops, but The Dreaming on the Ave was astonishingly charitable with freebies and wonderful to socialize at (confirming where I’ll be buying most of my books from now on). Zanadu on 45th was also great, and I picked up the new “Area 10” Vertigo Crime with the first trade of Chew, for 20% due to getting two graphic novels at one time. I imagine other stores have been kicking ass like this too. (And last I saw copies of Jim Woodring’s coveted Weathercraft was still at Zanadu …). Also, Zanadu had an insane basement sale — basically one dollar per title downstairs.
That should be “20% off” those GNs … but who knows by the end of the day?! IT’S INSANE.
I usually read slog every day to know about things going on around town and the day where there are FREE COMICS TO BE HAD, I don’t read. I’m so mad at myself.
I only got to hit up Fantagraphics due to some spring cleaning on the homefront, but here’s a question, do you think that some of the local shops will be giving out any leftover official FCBD copies tomorrow (er…today that is?)