A book titled Insectopedia does not immediately portend an unforgettable Thursday night. But Hugh Raffles's new book isn't a dry trudge through entomology. In his alphabetical history of the human relationship to bugs, you'll find the occasional scientific term ("sugary anal exudates"!), but you'll also encounter an illuminating essay about how science's treatment of homosexuality in bugs is indicative of the way society at large treats gays, along with entries for crush porn (in which beautiful women stomp on insects and rats), Kafka, and the Nazi dehumanization technique of comparing Jews to bugs. (Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 800-838-3006. 7:30 pm, $5.)