Several readings today.

Richie Unterberger reads at the Central Library at 6:30 pm. Unterberger has written a book about the Velvet Underground called White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day by Day. (Don't forget the 4:30 p.m. meeting of the Library Board at the Central Library that I wrote about in my books lead, too.)

There are two readings at Town Hall today. David Williams reads from Stories in Stone, a book that says that we can learn about Earth's history by looking at rocks. And Novella Carpenter reads from Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer is about farming in downtown Oakland. Oakland really gets a bad rap so far as cities go.

And there are two novels being read tonight, too. University Book Store hosts Heather Barbieri, who is the author of Lacemakers of Glenmara, in which a fashion designer flees to Ireland to find herself. And Chandler Burr, the scent columnist for the New York Times, reads at Elliott Bay Book Company. Burr is the author of a new novel called You or Someone Like You. It is about a woman who starts a book club that eventually leads to her formulating, according to Publisher's Weekly, "a radical opinion of Jewish political and religious ideology." Weird!

If you're into urban farming or just interesting non-fiction, the Novella Carpenter is for you. If you're more in a literary mood, the Burr reading is the reading of the night.

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.