There's a lot going on for a Saturday including a reading about a murder in wine country at Seattle Mystery Book Shop, a launch party for a visual dictionary about the Lego Star Wars universe at the U Village Barnes & Noble, a reading about hillside gardens and a reading about unsent letters at Elliott Bay Book Company, and a reading about a cookbook by famous authors at Third Place Books.

Fantagraphics Books in Georgetown is hosting Johnny Ryan, who is probably still considered "controversial" in states which are primarily Republican. Ryan will sign his work and debut an exhibition of original art that will be on display at the Fantagraphics Bookstore for the month.

Rick Steves, who is the big local travel goombah, hosts a benefit titled "Travel as a Political Act" at Town Hall. While I don't necessarily embrace the premise of the title of the benefit, I am certainly intrigued.

And Eileen Myles and Maggie Nelson are at Elliott Bay Book Company tonight. Myles is a brilliant novelist and essayist. The Importance of Being Iceland is a book that I drooled all over in The Stranger several months ago:

There's something about Myles's delivery that seems straight-faced but has a slightly daffy tone. Sentences come from out of nowhere to slap the reader in the side of the head, like this question from an interview with Daniel Day-Lewis:

I have several myths about actors that I wanted to unload. One thinks of actors as the abstemious or the excessive type. Like, Richard Gere only drinks tea, and Richard Burton has a heart attack and dies. What's your relation to excess?

The tenuous relationship between heart attacks and excesses makes sense once you think about it, but there's a comical moment, somewhere around the Richard Gere part of the sentence, where you have to wonder if Myles has come completely unrooted in the conversation with Day-Lewis and is floating around in the atmosphere.

The whole review is here. If you're more of a cartoon nerd, the Johnny Ryan event is for you, but my heart is with Eileen Myles for 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.