A fantasy author, an open mic, and a bunch of other readings going on tonight.

At the Bellevue Regional Library, Jennifer Worick reads from Backcountry Betty: Roughing It in Style, a book that has information about “how to trick out your fleece” and how to start a fire with lipstick.

Up at Third Place Books, Kathryn Harrison reads from While They Slept : An Inquiry Into the Murder of a Family. I’m usually more interested in true crime authors themselves than I am in their books, but this looks like an interesting one. It’s about a man who killed his parents and sister. He apparently killed them while they slept. So that solves the mystery of the title.

At Elliott Bay Book Company, David Sedaris reads from his newest book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. This reading is sold out, but that doesn’t mean you can’t attend. The tickets were for the reading room, but the cafe and bookstore will also be wired for sound. So you may not be able to see Mr. Sedaris, but you will still be able to hear his voice. It will be an experience akin to, say, listening to him on the radio. Also, he generally stays until every last book is signed for every last person in line. And now that he’s not smoking, he won’t be stepping out for cigarettes every twenty minutes or so, and so the line will move faster.

And at Town Hall, world-famous snitch Scott McClellan reads from his book What Happened, about how he was the stupid mouthpiece of the stupid Bush administration and how he didn’t do anything about the stupid lies he was saying day in and day out until after the 2004 election was a not-so-fond memory. Hopefully, someone will ask him why, besides a no-doubt enormous book deal, he waited so frigging long to squeal.

Full readings calendar, including the next week or so, can be found elsewhere.