Ginny Hutchinson is at University Bookstore tonight. She'll explain why she is better than you in a reading in support of self-help book, which is titled Better Because of You. Up at Third Place Books, Margaret McGee reads from Haiku: The Sacred Art: A Spiritual Practice in Three Lines. This is a title that falls one syllable short of being a haiku. Why the hell wouldn't McGee add an extra syllable to make the title scan? Someone should ask her tonight.

And then two readings from biographies tonight. At Town Hall, Jennifer Burns reads from Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right reads here tonight. Whether you love Rand or loathe her, you should read this book. I wrote about it a few months back:

Ayn Rand invites a blind admiration that would make your standard cult leader blush. She also inspires apoplectic, spittle-flecked rants from her foes that accelerate from disagreement to incomprehensibility in seconds. Jennifer Burns, then, has achieved the impossible: She has written a biography of Rand that is neither adoring nor hate-filled.

And at Elliott Bay Book Company tonight, Carol Sklenicka reads from Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life. This is a book about Raymond Carver, which means it is probably depressing. But you live in Seattle and you like books, which means you probably care a lot about Raymond Carver. This book—though I haven't read it yet—looks like an interesting perspective on the man. This is the reading of the night.

UPDATED: Jennifer Burns canceled tonight's appearance at Town Hall at the very last minute, reportedly due to illness. Damn you, illness!

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.