Tonight, former Velvet Underground frontman and current old, whispering frontman of Loutallica, Lou Reed, will be reading Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven in Brooklyn. more ›

In the event that you missed WORD's late-night Murakami read-a-thon on the release night of his new novel, IQ84, fret not! You have another opportunity to hear parts of Murakami's eagerly anticipated magnum opus read aloud, this time by some rather famous fans. more ›

Do you want to pretend that James Franco is your boyfriend reading you stories after midnight in bed? Here's what to do: Get a projection screen, put it next to your bed, scale the projection to actual size, dim the lights, curl up with a body pillow that smells like what you think he smells like, take an Ambien, drink some red wine and get really sleepy/tipsy/delusional, click play: more ›

The struggling St. Mark's Bookshop is getting an assist from an infamous supporter of the underdog: Michael Moore! The rabble-rousing filmmaker, who spent his Monday night visiting with the Wall Street Occupiers, is planning to visit the bookstore tomorrow night for a signing. more ›

Look at Courtney Love: wearing a sophisticated black ensemble, carrying around reading glasses, and shooting off the many, many titles of the books she's reading now... including The Power Broker: Robert Moses And The Fall Of New York. Hey Courtney, call us! We'd love to discuss Moses with you. Anyway, Love rattles off the name of a number of other books she's reading in the below video, and she's got a helpful hint for fellow bibliophiles: put the embarrassing titles you're reading on your Kindle so no one sees them. more ›

This just in: Gothamist fave Suzanne Vega will be hosting a last-minute event at the Russian Tea Room tonight, and if you have $88, you're invited! They tell us: more ›

Recognizing that it's rough out there for a bibliophile, Strand Books is now offering some small relief, in the form of gifts for former Borders shoppers. more ›

One of the great pleasures of commuting on mass transit—as opposed to driving, walking or even, gasp, biking—is that it affords you time to do a little reading. Some read the paper, some read magazines, some read on their phones (we love you Instapaper!) and a massive amount of people read old fashioned books. And for that last group, CoverSpy is watching. more ›

A rep from G-Unit Records just contacted us with some late-breaking news: the book that Bloody Loco's totally calm and fearless victim was reading on the subway that day was The 50th Law... which is a book about fearlessness! more ›

We're not sure that learning to read at age four gives you that much of an advantage over a child who learned to read at age six, but many parents agree that it's never to early to love to read. However, parents who send their kids to the city's private schools are being told that learning to read too young can be "stultifying," and many schools are choosing to delay formalized reading instruction until the first grade. Someone get the Tiger Mom on these hippie principals! more ›

Last month, James Franco was at the 92nd Street Y discussing his portrayal of Allen Ginsberg in the movie Howl, and how he developed his voice for the part. Now the 92Y has an mp3 of Ginsberg himself reading “Mind Breaths” during a 1977 appearance there. They say the poem was inspired by his study of samatha meditation, which Ginsberg has said "is paying attention to the breath leaving the nostril and dissolving into the space in front of the face. There is constant daydreaming and drifting away from that attention to the space." more ›

Which mad man do you read like? The Battery Park City Library has been Tweeting links to books that have been making cameos on Mad Men, from Frank O'Hara's Meditations in an Emergency to Atlas Shrugged to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited—and now they've added a photo gallery. more ›

Guess what some parents like to do besides bring babies to bars? They take them to the library for toddler time—and at one Upper East Side branch, some have actually created counterfeit tickets. The Post exposed the frenzy at the Webster Library (York near East 78th) yesterday, "The matinee story time every Wednesday at the NYPL's Webster branch is so popular with toddlers that organizers had to switch to a color-coded ticket system because desperate mommies and nannies had started counterfeiting the numbered tickets." more ›

Here's an excuse that's sure to become popular in classrooms throughout the city: "I didn't do my homework because I don't want to go blind." more ›

The NY Times profiles a woman who is on day 350 of her 365 day project to read a book a day—and review it here. Nina Sankovitch, a former environmental lawyer, "was inspired, in part, by the need to make sense of her oldest sister’s death," sticks to books 250-300 pages long and reads whenever she can get a chance (such as while waiting to pick up her kids). She says, "I’ve always thought great literature is all one needs to read to understand human psychology, emotions, even history. For someone sitting around reading books, it’s been a really lively year." more ›

The NY Times and CityRoom have been collecting their readers' subway reading material choices, and there's an article in the Times with a little bit of what they've offered: "There are those whose commutes are carefully timed to the length of a Talk of the Town section of The New Yorker, those who methodically page their way through the classics, and those who always carry a second trash novel in case they unexpectedly make it to the end of the first on a glacial F train." Some are reading scripts—hoping for a part—while others are reading religious texts (the Talmud) and even 5-8 year-old summer day campers are reading (The Baby-Sitters Club). One CityRoom commenter said, "I don’t read newspapers on the subway — I might get depressed and jump in front of a train," which would obviously earn them the wrath of their fellow riders, while another said, "Newspapers are for online reading." What are you reading on the train? A few weeks ago, we were reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on a 7 train...and noticed that the guy on the right was also reading it. more ›

Attention sexy hipster kids, there's a new Craigslist poster that needs YOU...if you are, in fact, a young hip Brooklynite who has a penchant for blurbing and reading about the sexual encounters of teens. Interested? Read on...

Cool Brooklyn book publisher looking for cool 18-25yo hipsters to blurb our cool forthcoming book of sex stories for teens. We will send you a PDF of the book and ask for a blurb & headshot for advertising, website, publicity. Tiny honorarium of free books and our guarantee to read and consider your own book manuscript for publication.

Native Son. Not bad for a guy who at the time was barely 30. more ›

Brooklyn writers are banding together to be the latest voice against Bruce Ratner's vision for Atlantic Yards. A number of local wordsmiths have contributed to Brooklyn Was Mine, an anthology consisting of short essays and stories put together by two Vogue editor to benefit Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (a non-profit that fights development while uniting the community). From the press release:

"Brooklyn has given birth to some of America's greatest literary voices," note the anthology's co-editors, Chris Knutsen and Valerie Steiker. "Today, a new generation of authors has grown up or resettled here, a testament to Brooklyn's unique quality of life. These writers simply want to protect a community that has provided them with so much. Fortunately, the passion they feel for the place has yielded a vibrant collection of essays—and we are delighted that, with each book sold, something will be given back to Brooklyn."

READING: Olympia Dukakis, who you know from such films as Moonstruck and Steel Magnolias, will be at Barnes & Noble tonight. She'll be reading from a brand spakin' new edition of Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children. She recently put down the Oscar and picked up a pen to write the forward to the antiwar classic. more ›

There are some things needed while reporting for jury duty. Reading material, maybe some snacks, a lot of patience... but a sword and a dagger aren't on the list. But that's what a city employee, headed to Brooklyn Supreme Court, did bring. The Post reports that 40-year-old Vladislav Lisetsky, who works in the Human Resources Administration, brought in a cane that concealed not only a two and a half foot sword at one end, but... more ›

Filmmaker Ethan Coen has left his big brother behind and written three short plays all by himself. Called Almost an Evening, the triptych will be produced by the Atlantic Theater Company with a terrific cast that includes Elizabeth Marvel, who was riveting in Ivo van Hove’s unforgettable revival of Hedda Gabler, and Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham. The plays “unsuccessfully tackle important questions. In Waiting, someone waits somewhere for quite some time. In Four... more ›

The south Jersey town of Vineland – or “shithole Vtown” as some locals call it – will host a massive three-day rock festival with camping this August. The Vineland Festival will be presented in a partnership between the company that resurrected Lollapalooza in Chicago and U.K. concert promoter Melvin Benn, who has managed the Reading Festival. No acts have been announced but that hasn’t stopped promoters from setting their price: a three-day pass, which... more ›

EVENT: In the book Love & Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships David Levy goes where no man has gone before. Hopefully. From the book's description: "Love, marriage, and sex with robots? Not in a million years? Maybe a whole lot sooner.From a leading expert in artificial intelligence comes an eye-opening, superbly argued book that explores a new level of human intimacy and relationships—with robots." We're not even ready to see Lars and... more ›

EVENT: Berlin takes over New York this month with the Berlin in Lights Festival. Through the 18th you can soak up the German city through film, music, art, architecture and more. This evening you can check out a couple of Berlin-esque events. First up is the "Urban Design and Memorials" dialogue. A panel discussion which will touch on the "challenges of integrating memorials into the urban fabric, and how Berlin and New York address issues... more ›

Greg Gutfeld is a funny guy. The only problem is that his show, Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld is on at 2 AM on Fox News. But that's not his problem; it's yours-- because you don't get to watch his show. You miss out on fun guests like Dennis Kucinich, Harland Williams, and Johnny Rotten providing rapid-fire commentary on the day's events. But just because it's on at 2 AM and on Fox News isn't stopping it from getting positive reviews from the The New York Times and The Guardian . more ›

READING: It's the first Tuesday of the month, which means...there's a Sci-Fi reading! "Now In its 19th year, the New York Review of Science Fiction Reading Series has showcased some of the most prominent and upcoming authors in the genre. However, the series' commitment to providing a venue as an ongoing science fiction reading series in New York City, is open to all works of speculative fiction, whether they be works of fantasy, magical realism, horror, or science fiction." 40 years ago, Samuel R. Delany narrated a radio adaptation of his novella, The Star Pit, for The Mind's Eye Theatre, Baird Searles' ongoing series of radio dramas at New York's listener-sponsored WBAI-FM. Tonight the anniversary of the broadcast is celebrated with Delany himself. more ›

Rugged celebrity George Clooney and his girlfriend were injured when their motorcycle got into an accident with a car in Weehawken, NJ yesterday afternoon. Clooney, whose has been filming the Coen Brothers film Burn After Reading in New York and New Jersey, has a hairline fracture of a rib and road rash while Sarah Larson has broken some of her toes. Both were wearing helmets. more ›