A list of book-related events in New York City.

· Jonathan Safran Foer discusses the details of his million-dollar book deal before an audience of envious hacks at Coliseum Books on 42nd Street across from Bryant Park. 6pm.

· Author and McSweeney's contributor J. Robert Lennon reads from his new novel about a neurotic mailman at Three Lives & Company, 154 West 10th. 7pm.

· Fellow McSweeneyite Ben Greenman is the author of Superbad and the forthcoming Superworse. He'll be at Bowery Poetry Club tonight, 308 Bowery across from CBGB.

· Andrew Lewis Conn, Julie Hilden, Nic Kelman, Martha Garvey and musician Will Noonan talk dirty at Amanda Stern's Happy Ending Reading Series. It's erotic fiction night, you see. 302 Broome at Forsyth, 8pm. Random pullquote from Nic Kelman's Girls: "Beneath your hands, the skin on her thighs is so smooth it makes you think of faxpaper."

· Elinor Langer reads from her book about Oregon skinheads, A Hundred Little Hitlers, at the Astor Place B&N, 7:30pm. Any remaining S.H.A.R.P. skins in the East Village are welcome.

· David Greenberg is the author of Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image, a kaleidoscopic study of "the first postmodern president," and he's discussing it at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· Critically lauded novelist Susan Choi reads from American Woman, a fictionalized account of the Patty Hearst kidnapping in the '70s, at the Sixth Ave B&N at 22nd Street. 7pm.

· NY Observer columnist Joe Conason is pissed. Find out why when he reads from his book Big Lies:The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth, at the Park Slope B&N. 7:30pm.

· Brenda Coultas and Bhanu Kapil Rider at St. Marks Poetry Project, 10th Street & Second Ave. 8 bucks. 8pm.

· SNL star and gay lust object Jimmy Fallon just wrote a book with his sister Gloria called I Hate This Place: The Pessimist's Guide to Life. They're signing copies of it at the Rockefeller Center B&N at Fifth Ave & 48th Street today. 1pm.

· Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly discuss the latest in their Little Lit series of children's books, It Was a Dark and Silly Night -- which features the work of cats like Kaz, William Joyce, Gahan Wilson and Neil Gaiman -- at Coliseum Books, 42nd Street across from Bryant Park. 6pm.

· Daniel Nester's tribute to the band Queen is the size of a 45 record sleeve and contains short essays, in chronological order, for every single song recorded by the band. Check him out at Halcyon with Lloyd Robson and David Pretel. 227 Smith Street between Butler & Douglas.

· Heather Swain reads from her curiously titled novel Eliot's Banana at the Park Slope B&N. 7:30pm.

· Urbana Poetry Slam at the Bowery Poetry Club. 308 Bowery across from CBGB. 5 bucks. 7:30pm.

· National Book Award winner Pete Dexter reads from his new novel Train at the Borders at 57th & Park. 6:30pm.

· Remarkably good beats in between slam-style poets at the Friday Night Poetry Slam at Nuyorican Poets Cafe. East 3rd between B & C. 10pm.

· Book launch reception at Printed Matter for Nickel Plated Angels, a collection of Brooklyn artist Dalek's drawings, graffiti, photographs and "simultaneously sinister and exuberant" Space Monkeys, published by Gingko Press (who get props for reprinting a whole mess of Marshall McLuhan's writings). 535 West 22nd. 5-7pm.

· Mark Bibbins and David Cameron read to the hungover at Soft Skull Shortwave, 71 Bond Street in Boerum Hill, BKLN. 2pm.

· Dennis Loy Johnson, publisher of MobyLives, and novelist Steve Stern read stories at Barbes in Park Slope, 9th Street & Sixth Ave, BKLN. 6pm.

· Geniuses from The Onion fend off young fans at the Union Square B&N, 7pm.

· Poets Anselm Berrigan and Tomaz Salamun at KGB, 85 East 4th. 7-9pm.

· Cathleen Schine discusses her new novel She Is Me at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· Neal Stephenson talks about his much-anticipated, 944-page historical novel, Quicksilver: Volume One of the Baroque Cycle, at the Union Square B&N, 7pm. It's about science.

· Francis Bok was sold into slavery as a young boy in Sudan in the 1980s. His book is called Escape From Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity -- and My Journey to Freedom in America. He'll be talking about it at the Astor Place B&N, 7:30pm.

· Patty Dann reads from her post-9/11 small-town-America novel, Sweet & Crazy, at the 8th Street B&N, 7:30pm.

· Russian Studies professor Nina Gurianova is working on a book called Aesthetics of Anarchy: The Russian Avant-Garde, 1907-1917. She'll be discussing tradition and innovation in Russian artists' books inside the South Court Auditorium of the NY Public Library, Fifth Ave & 42nd Street, at 6:30pm. $10/$7 donors.

· Phyllis Chesler discusses and signs her book The New Anti-Semitism at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· More Russian book studies at the NY Public Library: History professor Gary Marker offers "A Cautious Embrace: The Enlightenment and Russian Print Culture." South Court Auditorium, Fifth Ave & 42nd Street. 6:30pm.

· Lisa Dierbeck reads from her psychedelic paen to lost innocence, One Pill Makes You Smaller, at the Sixth Ave B&N at 22nd Street, 7pm.

· Arthur Nersesian reads from his bohemian tragicomedy, Chinese Takeout, at the Astor Place B&N, 7:30pm.

· Claudia Keelan and Donald Revell break it down at the Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 5 Union Square West, 7th floor. 7:30pm.

· Greg Fuchs -- author of Came Like It Went -- and Carol Mirakove, author of FUCK THE POLIS, make noise at St. Marks Poetry Project, 10th Street & Second Ave. 8pm.

· New short-story specialist Joan Leegant and novelist Lev Raphael read at KGB for the JCC's Rough Cut series. 85 East 4th. 7-9pm.

· A McSweeney's Wild East reading at Galapagos in Williamsburg, centered around the cultural and sexual revolutions in post-Communist Eastern Europe. Paul Greenberg, John Beckman, Tom Bissell, Josip Navakovich and New Yorker staffer Boris Fishman spit tall tales from the former Soviet bloc. 70 North 6th Street, BKLN. 7pm.

· Stanley Bing reads from his sex-free sexual harrassment thriller, You Look Nice Today, at the Lincoln Square B&N. 7:30pm.

· First-time novelist Philip Allen reads from Play Money, his book about pensive venture capitalists in the 1990s, at the 8th Street B&N, 7:30pm.

· Folks from the Gotham Writers' Workshop hold a Gotham writing workshop at the Borders at Second Ave & 32nd Street, using Raymond Carver's story "Cathedral" as their guide. 7:30pm.

· Armenian writers Anahid Cassabian, Aram Gilbilian and Juliet Sarkessian at Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia Street. 6pm.

· Nic Kelman and Lisa Dierbeck (see above) take turns reading from their equally intriguing new books at Housing Works Used Book Cafe, 128 Crosby Street. 7pm.

· New York Times vet John Hess attacks the myth of objective journalism and describes the battlefield that is apparently the New York Times newsroom in his book, My Times: A Memoir of Dissent. He's discussing and signing it tonight at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· Another vet, Nuyorican Poets Cafe regular Keith Roach, has a book out called the world changes at the expense of black people, and he's throwing a party for it at St. Marks Poetry Project, 10th Street & Second Ave. 8pm.

· Speaking of Nuyorican, the Semi-Final Friday Night Slam is happening tonight. Even if you're completely over the rhythms of slam poetry, the beats they play between sets there are worth the price of admission (which is 10 bucks). East 3rd between B & C.

· Italian American Writers Association reps Gil Fagiani and Maria Lisetta kick it at Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia Street. 6pm.

· Audrey Niffenegger, author of the sharp and much-gushed-about novel The Time Traveler's Wife, reads to the excitable KGB crowd with Eduardo Vegas Yunque. 85 East 4th. 7-9pm.

· Poet Paul McDonald's goal in life is "to live life with no credentials and no apologies." He enlists the aid of Shappy Seasholtz and Hal Sirowitz, the Poet Laureate of Queens, at Soft Skull Shortwave, 71 Bond Street, Boerum Hill, BK. 2pm.

· The universe, cosmologist Janna Levin says, is staggeringly immense but ultimately finite. Does it have a shape? Levin attempts to answer that question in the form of a series of unsent letters to her mother. Her book's called How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space. She'll be at the Astor Place B&N, 7:30pm.

· Nat Hentoff sounds the alarm for the protection of civil liberties and raises paranoia levels at the Sixth Ave B&N at 22nd Street, 7pm.

· Thomas Goltz's Chechnya Diary chronicles his time as a war correspondent in Chechnya and the "tacit death urge" that drove him. Hear his story at Half King, 505 West 23rd. 7pm.

· Dan Kennedy makes fun of himself and his new book Loser Goes First at the 8th Street B&N, 7:30pm.

· Book party for original New York School poet Barbara Guest, to celebrate the publication of Dürer in the Window, which compiles 50 years worth of art reviews and collabos with visual artists. St. Marks Poetry Project, Second Ave & East 10th. 8pm.

· There are no books involved but there are some fairly well-read comedians Eating It at Luna Lounge, including Andres duBouchet, Laurie Kilmartin, DJ Hazard and Colin Quinn. 171 Ludlow. 8pm.

· Nasally voiced and endearing history buff Sarah Vowell reads to indie-rock admirers at the Park Slope B&N. 7:30pm.

· Conflict resolution professor Richard E. Rubenstein discusses his new book Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Dark Ages, at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· Amir Aczel, author of The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah and the Human Mind, has a new book out about Foucault's pendulum. Check him out at the Borders at 57th & Park. 6:30pm.

· Every guest room in Adolf Hitler's retreat included a copy of Mein Kampf and stacks of French porn on the bedside table. Hear anecdotes like this and more when Jesse Browner reads from his exploration of hospitality, The Duchess Who Wouldn't Sit Down, at the 8th Street B&N. 7:30pm.

· Stewart O'Nan, author of the suburban Connecticut ghost story The Night Country, and Sara Gran, author of the succint possession thriller Come Closer (which garnered an enthusiastic user review from novelist Lev Raphael), creep each other out at Housing Works Used Book Cafe. 128 Crosby. 7pm.

· Sheri Fink, Donna Rosenthal and entertaining marriage-basher Laura Kipnis get all riled up at KGB, 85 East 4th. 7pm.

· Buzzed-about young Jewish writers read from the buzzed-about collection Lost Tribe at the JCC. Catch Gabriel Brownstein, Joan Leegant and Jon Papernick. 334 Amsterdam at 76th. 8pm.

· Print-biased linguist John McWhorter reads from
his rant against street English, Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care, at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· New Yorker writer Alec Wilkinson reads from his new collection of essays, Mr. Apology, at the Cooper Union Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street at Third Ave. 6:30pm.

· Rachel Levitsky and Monica Youn wax poetic at St. Marks Poetry Project, Second Ave & East 10th. 8pm.

· Danny Hoch livelies up the Urbana crowd at Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery across from CBGB. 7:30pm, 10 bucks.

· Reading-addict Sara Nelson discusses her diary of book consumption, So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading (not to be confused with another new book of the same title), at the Astor Place B&N, 7:30pm.

· Edward Jones' new novel, The Known World, explores the world of blacks who owned black slaves in the pre-Civil War South. Check him out at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· Dan Okrent discusses his study of the "the most ambitious construction project since the Pyramids" (really?): Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center, at the Lincoln Center B&N. 7pm.

· Adrian McKinty reads from his novel about a book-smart Irish gangster who escapes the Troubles in Belfast for New York City thug life, Dead I Well May Be, at the 8th Street B&N. 7:30pm.

· Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan talk up their tribute to one of the most diverse places on the planet -- Queens -- over at the Park Slope B&N in Brooklyn. Their book's called Crossing the BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America. 7:30pm.

· Anhoni Patel, Alicia Erian and Beth Lisick at KGB, 85 East 4th. 7pm.

· J. Guzman, novelist Paul Lisicky and Israeli refusenik Oz Shelach read from their completely different works at Astoria's Buzzer Thirty, 38-01 23rd Ave. 8pm.

· David Foster Wallace patiently breaks down the evolution of the concept of infinity at the Union Square B&N, 7pm. Everything And More is the title of his new tome.

· Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly hawk their new children's book, It Was a Dark and Silly Night -- which features the work of cats like Kaz, William Joyce, Gahan Wilson and Neil Gaiman -- at the Astor Place B&N. 7:30pm.

· Down under the Manhattan bridge overpass, cheap books await. The Cheap Small Press Fair promises tables full of interesting and hard-to-find books, with publishers like Autonomedia, Conundrum and Litmus Press representing. 11-5pm at NEST, corner of Front & Washington (F to York or A/C to High).

· Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri and heartily praised novelist Susan Choi read from their new books at KGB, 85 East 4th. 7pm.

· Pro poets Maurice Manning, Marcella Durand and Bill Kushner -- author of In the Hairy Arms of Whitman -- kick it live at Soft Skull Shortwave, 71 Bond Street in BK.

· Paula Gunn Allen disses Disney and presents Pocahontas' story from the Native American perspective in her new study, Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat. Hear her speak at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· Here come the Boomer recap books, just in time for retirement. Are you ready? Wes "Scoop" Nisker is at the Park Slope B&N discussing his new book, The Big Bang, The Buddha, and the Baby Boom: The Spiritual Experiments of My Generation. 7:30pm.

· National Book Award-winner Tim O'Brien, one of the better minds of his generation, reads from his new Boomer reunion novel July, July at the Cooper Union Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street at Third Ave. 6:30pm.

· Gay lit icon Edmund White reads from Fanny, his new fictional biography of 19th-century utopian feminist Fanny Wright, at Three Lives & Company, 154 West 10th. 7pm.

· Critics from The Hudson Review, The New York Review of Books and The Paris Review lovingly criticize literary culture in NYC at the 92nd Street Y (92nd & Lex). 8pm, 16 bucks.

· Poets Ann Lauterbach and Peter Richards at KGB, 85 East 4th. 7pm.

· The reactionary bashing of Fox News et al continues with Peter Hart's new book, The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly. Feel the love at the UWS B&N, 82nd and Broadway. 7:30pm.

· David Guterson reads from his new novel about a homeless mushroom picker's visions of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Forest, at the Union Square B&N. 7pm.

· Heidi Jon Schmidt's debut novel, The Bride of Catastrophe, concerns an impassioned bisexual girl stuck in 1970s Hartford. Check her out at the B&N at 86th & Second Ave. 7pm.

· Author Andrea Di Robilant's father found a stash of 18th-century love letters in her family's Venetian palazzo, so Di Robilant turned them into a novel. Her book's called A Venetian Affair, and she'll be discussing it at the Lincoln Square B&N. 7pm.

· Tama Janowitz reads from Peyton Amberg, her (tenth) novel about a restless married woman who yearns for dangerous sex with dangerous men, at the Sixth Ave B&N at 22nd Street. 7pm.

· David Lipsky talks about what life is actually like in the military at KGB, 85 East 4th. 7pm.

· Punching bag Alan Colmes won't be speaking, thankfully, but he will be signing copies of his new book, Red White & Liberal, at the Fifth Ave B&N at 48th Street. 1pm.

· Brainstorm on the meaning of unbelievably obscure (but always rewarding) passages in Finnegans Wake with an eclectic bunch of geniuses at the Finnegans Wake Society of New York meeting at Gotham Book Mart, 47th Street between Fifth & Sixth, 6pm. They're starting with page 265, line 6, which begins: "Sweetsome auburn, cometh up as a selfreizing flower, that fragolance of the fraisey beds: the phoenix, his pyre, is still flaming away with trueprattight spirit: the wren his nest is niedelig as the turrises of the sabines are televisible." Good luck.

· Dan Rhodes reads from his new novel about a jaded old composer who offers young men room and board at his Italian villa in exchange for oral sex on Wednesdays. Timoleon Vieta Come Home is the name of the book; the author's at the Astor Place B&N. 7:30pm.

· Edeet Ravel reads from her controversial novel about a pair of conflicted lovers in 1970s Israel, Ten Thousand Lovers, at the 8th Street B&N. 7:30om.

· Dmitri Erhlich, Jonathan Moskowitz and Daniel Nester explore fanboy aesthetics at Amanda Stern's Happy Ending Reading Series. 302 Broome at Forsyth. 8pm.

· Colson Whitehead (The Intuitionist) zeroes in on the gem-like details of daily life in New York in his new creative nonfiction project, The Colossus of New York. Check him out at the Union Square B&N. 7pm.

· Jennifer Hecht celebrates history's great doubters in her book Doubt: A History, and her list of skeptical innovators includes Confucius, Socrates, Jesus, Galileo, Darwin and Wittgenstein (what, no Krishnamurti?). Meet her at the Park Slope B&N. 7:30pm.

· Author Mark Salzman taught creative writing to troubled kids at a Los Angeles Juvenile Hall, then compiled his kids' hard-hitting prose into a book, which he called True Notebooks. Hear his story at the Sixth Ave B&N at 22nd Street. 7pm.

· Larry Brown reads from his raucous Deep South novel The Rabbit Factory to a not-so-Southern crowd at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· Jim Fusilli reads from his noirish detective thriller Tribeca Blues at the 8th Street B&N. 7:30pm.

· Newly proclaimed novelist Amanda Stern, former MTV Poet Laureate Maggie Estep and expert short-story packager Nelly Reifler read from their new books at Housing Works Used Book Cafe, 128 Crosby Street. 7pm.

· Ayelet Waldman discusses her highly praised and Eggers-approved novel Daughter's Keeper at Coliseum Books, 42nd Street across Bryant Park. 6pm.

· Gay lit king Edmund White and late-blooming lesbian Claire Robson read and drink in harmony at KGB, 85 East 4th. 7pm.

· Ayelet Waldman reads from her heavily blurbed novel concerning mothers, daughters and American drug laws. Daughter's Keeper is the book; Housing Works Used Book Cafe is the place. 128 Crosby. 7pm.

· Seattle, 1999: NASDAQ mania, WTO riots, a terrorist is arrested and a jetliner goes down. This is the backdrop for travel writer Jonathan Raban's novel Waxwings. Find out more at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· Poet CA Conrad spouts spare verse at Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia Street in the Village. 6pm.

· "You Can't Go Home Again" is the theme tonight at the Barbès leg of the Fall Lit Fest. Hear variations from Nelly Reifler, Beth Bosworth, Lisa Shea and Abigail Thomas. 9th Street & Sixth Ave in Park Slope. 6pm.

· Joan Didion reassesses her ancestry and her home state of California in her new and unexpected book, Where I Was From. Get close at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· Todd McEwen has produced a new "Joycean classic" that is leaving reviewers breathless with untainted praise. I think I'll join them, even though I'm only on page 4. Random excerpt from said page: "Cars left colors behind them like leaves; the rain shaped them. Music will stop time in the city occasionally. But always there is duty." The city is New York, and the book's called Who Sleeps With Katz. Find out what the deal is at the 8th Street B&N. 7:30pm.

· Fairy-tale revisionist Gregory Maguire gives Snow White his baroque treatment in his new novel, Mirror Mirror. Take in the performance at the Lincoln Square B&N. 6:30pm.

· Laurence Gonzales dives into the science and psychology of wilderness survival in his well-titled book, Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why. Check him out at the Half King, 23rd Street & Tenth Ave. 7pm.

· Dow Mossman reads from newly reissued 1972 tome, The Stones of Summer, at the Union Square B&N. 7pm.

· Sean Hepburn Ferrer remembers his elegant late mother Audrey, and promotes his new book about her, at the Borders at 57th & Park. 6:30pm.

· Al Franken reads from his best-selling Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them to a full house at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm. It won't be as amusing as putting him in the same room with Bill O'Reilly, but it should be worthwhile.

· Filmmaker and historian Michael Wood reads from his illustrated biography of Shakespeare (which will accompany a PBS series airing next year) at the Sixth Ave B&N at 22nd Street. 7pm.

· Biographer Mary Ann Caws discusses her new study of one of the biggies of the 20th century, Marcel Proust, at Cooper Union's Wollman Auditorium, 51 Astor Place. 6:30pm.

· Kevin Baker reads from Paradise Alley, his acclaimed historical novel about the 1863 Civil War draft riots (memorably depicted in Marty Scorsese's Gangs of New York), at Coliseum Books, 42nd Street across from Bryant Park. 6pm.

· Andrew Cuomo, former secretary of housing and urban development, has put together a book he hopes will help Democrats get their shit together. Essayists include John Kerry, John Edwards and P. Diddy. Crossroads: The Future of American Politics is the book; get in on the discussion at the Union Square B&N. 7pm.

· Norman Mailer has some Modest Gifts for us at the Union Square B&N. 7:30pm.

· Rambam was a 12th-century Jewish scholar who developed a well-thought-out, eight-step program on giving to the poor. Author Julie Salamon expounds on those steps in Rambam's Ladder: A Meditation on Generosity and Why It Is Necessary to Give. Find out more at Coliseum Books, 42nd Street across from Bryant Park. 6pm.

· Peter Straub reads from his 16th horror novel, Lost Boy Lost Girl, at the UWS B&N, 82nd & Broadway. 7:30pm.

· Fiction developers Brock Clarke, Hannah Tinti and Alix Ohlin represent for the Fall List Fest at Amanda Stern's Happy Ending Reading Series, 302 Broome at Forsyth. 8pm.

· For Rick Whitaker, the gay sensibility is "original and fresh... clever, scornful of laws... introspective, energetic and sexy, with a degree of irony, and wit, and... almost always a background of melancholy." Hear him discuss his new intro to gay lit, The First Time I Met Frank O'Hara: Reading Gay American Writers, at the Sixth Ave B&N at 22nd Street. 7pm.

· Lance Morrow, author of over 150 Time magazine cover stories, inquires into the nature of evil in Evil: An Investigation. Find out how he made out at the B&N at Second Ave & 86th Street. 7pm.

· Speaking of evil, Peter Balakian is at the Union Square B&N discussing his overview of the Armenian genocide in Turkey, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response. Check the raging debate in the Amazon user reviews. 7pm.

· James Maxey reads from his "comic book novel" (not to be mistaken for a graphic novel), Nobody Gets the Girl, at the 8th Street B&N. 7:30pm.

· Poets Colette Inez and Dorothy August spread love at Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia Street in the Village. 6pm.

· Mexican poets Monica Nepote, Laura Solòrzano, Cristina Rivera-Garza and Mexican-poet-translator Jen Hofer pay tribute to The Genius of (Mis)Translation at the Dactyl Foundation, 64 Grand Street in Soho. 7pm.