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Do you remember reading for fun? That was nice, wasn’t it? Relive the better days of your life this week at Litquake.
What is Litquake, you ask? No it is not a literal earthquake or a natural disaster of any sort (disappointed?). It is the West Coast’s largest independent literary festival. What co-director Jane Ganahl says started as 20 authors doing 10 minute readings in Golden Gate Park, is now 850 authors at 150 events all over San Francisco and the Bay Area. The festival started last Friday but there is still plenty to go.
What does that mean, exactly? It means readings, panels and events about everything literary from pro-wrestling to Jeffrey Eugenides to solving a modern mystery on a cable car to the infamous Lit Crawl (you think a Clog Crawl is hardcore? Try this on for size).
Just last Monday the Clog was able to attend a Litquake event that was co-hosted by author Christopher Moore and his friend and National Geographic photographer Flip Nicklin, which evolved into an interesting talk about both whales and the Impressionists. Just goes to show: Litquake truly brings the unexpected.
You can find the event listings by date and author on the Litquake website, but the Clog is here to direct you to some of our recommendations.
Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., in our very own First Congregational Church of Berkeley, there will be an event entitled “War of the Worldviews: A Debate with Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow.” The two authors will discuss the “future of God,” which should be deep, controversial and extremely engaging – all-in-all, very Berkeley. You can buy tickets here.
Thursday night has several events that sparked our interest, particularly “Serving it Forth: a Feast of Food Writing.” The event is $15 at the door, but if there’s anything we know about Berkeley, it’s that we love food. The event will be at Chronicle Books at 6:00 p.m.
If you happen to be wondering what to do with your Friday afternoon, and are a fan of graphic novels and things that are free (who isn’t?), you may want to check out “When Pictures Speak Louder than Words” at 1:00 p.m. at Z Space. Artists will be presenting their stories as well as participating in a panel, and there will be some really interesting people present. Later on Friday (at 7:00 p.m.), is “Rock Out with Your Book Out: Music Writers and Musicians Who Write” at the delightfully-named Make-Out Room. If there’s anything we love as much as food, it’s music. The panelists, both writers and musicians alike, will talk about everything music writing and writing about music. The event will be priced on a $5-10 sliding scale at the door.
Saturday is full of literarily exciting events, but most importantly, the previously mentioned Lit Crawl. What is Lit Crawl? Well we’re not exactly sure, we just know it entails going from location to location, bar to bookstore, in a hectic blur of authors and readings. The evening is scheduled in phases, 6 to 7 p.m., 7:15 to 8:15 p.m. and 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. You can check the full schedule and meticulously plan out your evening, or the more adventurous can pick a starting point and follow people until you find something.
Once again, don’t just take our word for it, there may be an event just for you, calling to the reader inside you – and not the kind of reader for class.
Image source: ooh_food under Creative Commons
Litquake [site]
