On a day when I pick 3 events to feature and one of them is not the double release party for Maxine Chernoff and Paul Hoover, you can understand why lately I’ve decided almost exclusively to do whatever I happen to be closest to when 7 o’clock comes around.

In no particular order:

1. The Magnet Book Club w/Kemble Scott (SoMa) – A new, monthly group hosted by Oscar Raymundo, The Magnet Book Club featured Justin Torres at their first event. You should take a look at the pictures and watch Justin read from this book [or listen on The Writer’s Block] to imagine what it might be like to see Kemble Scott (Scott James) there [more here and here and here]. And read an interview between Raymundo and Scott here.
2. Ourshelves Presents: Excerpts – Ourshelves is the incredible lending library within Viracocha, curated by Kristina Kearns, and this series features members and guests reading excerpts from their favorite books. Zarina Zabrisky, this week’s top pick for her reading at Anger Management, did a write-up of the first Excerpts event. Here’s a list of the books represented (in 3-5 minute increments) at that reading [imagine, and bring one of your favorite passages].
3. Litquake’s Epicenter w/Steve Erickson + Kevin Berger – Read this amazing article on why Steve Erickson deserves his own brand of postmodern fiction (and why you should go to Litquake’s epicenter, as it is Erickson’s only West Coast event for his new book These Dreams of You). “Probably the biggest favor a publisher could do for Erickson would be to bind his first four interconnected books into one volume, and declare it a big, sprawling novel.” Also: “Erickson, though, has a respect for popular genres that other postmodern writers (with the possible exception of Jonathan Lethem) don’t. He wants to recapture the wonder of reading as a child, wants to preserve what makes a genre great. He’s not as interested in appropriation as he is in seeing how literature itself can be at once literary and have the blood of genre coursing through its veins.” And, to blow the top: “If he’s the secret heir of DeLillo, he’s also the not-so-secret heir of Doctor Who, Jean-Luc Godard, and David Lynch.”