READING: Dave Eggers has delivered two (out of three) great novels, and tonight he reads from last one (which is just out on paperback), What is the What. He'll be at the Strand discussing the book and he'll also give a slideshow presentation from a recent trip he took to Sudan. More info here. Friday // 7pm // Strand Bookstore [828 Broadway] // Free EVENT: We love a good pillow fight, and tonight there's a......

Books, or at least book shelves, must be on this couple's wedding registry: The Post has a cute story about a couple whose engagement took place at the Strand Bookstore. Joshua Reich and Shianling King "always told friends they met at the Strand," but they actually met online - their first date was supposed to be at the Museum of Modern Art, but the lines were so long that they went to the Strand instead.......

In May word was spreading that the famed Gotham Book Mart would be shutting its doors as the owner, Andreas Brown, was forced to pay overdue rent. At that time, the entire contents of the shop ("from rare first-edition John Updike novels to the worn-out oriental rug on the third floor") were sold for $400K at a court-mandated auction. The Post called it an "undignified last chapter for the institution - beloved by the likes......

ART: Affordable art is the best kind, so good thing there's a whole fair dedicated to it. Today 70+ artists worldwide will be selling their work at prices ranging from $100 and up. Get something to cover up those bare walls and support artists all at the same time. Noon to 5pm // The Altman Building [125 W 18th St] DISCUSSION: The Strand Bookstore just turned 80 years old, and it's not a surprise it's......

NY Mag made note of The Strand Bookstore's birthday over the weekend. The shop, which boasts 18 miles of books, turned 80 on June 2nd, proving it's a mainstay even amongst the Barnes and Noble and Borders book stores popping up around town. The store was founded by Ben Bass on what was known as Book Row, which at the time housed 48 bookstores. Today it's run by Fred and Nancy Bass. When asked......

MUSIC: Doug Martsch of Built to Spill performs a stripped down acoustic set tonight before heading over to Irving to play with the band. This will be pretty amazing, so even if you missed out on tickets to the show at Irving, try to catch him solo. 5pm // Sound Fix [110 Bedford Ave, Williamsburg] // Free READINGS: At Strand tonight, Joseph Steiglitz with his new book Making Globalization Work, the sequel to Globalization and......

EVENT: Tonight at the Apple Store, the NYC photobloggers get together again. Come check out: Scott Heiferman, Kara Canal, Rebecca Smeyne, Will Sherman, Kamau Mucoki, Boogie and Martin Fuchs. There's an afterparty (TBA) so be sure too look nice, with all those cameras out and all. Friday // 6:30pm // SoHo Apple Store [103 Prince Street @ Greene] // Free SIDEWALK SALE: Have a bookshelf to stock? Head over to the Strand Bookstore. They're having......

MOVIE ART: Young artists with wtf?-attitudes come together to bring us "Risky Business" - a showcase of mixed media, including video, sculpture, collage, painting, and photography. A parents-out-of-town themed art party will follow the opening. 6 to 8pm // Tonight through August 18th // PPOW [555 W. 25th St] // Free THEATER: It wasn't just the Fringe Festival opening this weekend. Waterwell's Marco Millions (based on lies), which is actually based on a not-very-famous play......

GAME ON!: NY Games presents Capture the Flag! We love this game. If you love it too, come be a spectator - or join in! Team Caution plays Team Danger...which will you root for? 7:30pm // Washington Square Park (waterfoutain in the center) // Free MUSIC: With ¡Forward, Russia! playing last night and Band of Horses playing tomorrow night, what does tonight - the meat in the blog buzz sandwich - bring us? How about......

THEATER: The Ohio Theater is the site of two of summer's best play festivals, and the first, Clubbed Thumb's eleventh Summerworks, started yesterday with Anne Washburn's I Have Loved Strangers, "in which true prophets, false prophets, and non-prophets battle for the salvation of ancient New York." On the company's website http://www.clubbedthumb.org/ you can do some "research" before going, via various eyebrow-raising links; or you can just rely on the winning trifecta of excellent track records:......

View this clip on Vimeo Oh, Charlie Todd, we love you and your thousands of nameless improv slaves! In this weeks prank, Charlie organized a group of 120 agents, and devised a plan to play a cell-phone symphony in the checked-bag area of the Strand Bookstore. This meant working in teams of two, where one person smuggled in the phone, and one person called (the callers were placed well out of the way in Union......

Gothamist loves fun facts, but when we hear that yesterday's sweltering weather set new Con Ed records for power usage, we're not sure if we should be proud or slightly nervous of brownouts. The Post says that 12,361 megawatts of electricity were chruned out yesterday, besting its August 9, 2001 record of 12,207. Con Ed says the East 14th Street power station is helping to meet the demand; of course, there have been some problems......

Nancy Bass, Bookseller...

Art Spiegelman will be speaking about his new book, In The Shadow of No Towers, at the Strand Bookstore this Sunday. In The Shadow was just published, and Gothamist has been looking forward to reading it, given what we know about Spiegelman ever since reading Maus and how he gracefully handled The New Yorker cover for the September 11 issue, which the new book's cover echoes. Spigelman will be joined by a number of other......