Readings

After an espresso or two has kicked jet lag into the long grass, I find no better place to plot a course in a city than at an independent bookstore cafe. Many operate more as cultural and community centers than as businesses, with late hours and a medium-sized town's worth of on-site readings, tastings and concerts out of any weather that may be annoying you. Check out their posters and bulletin boards for options farther afield. And ask the staff: Bookstore cafes usually have a nicotine-tinged finger or two on a city's pulse.

Pop-Hop Books and Print Where: 5002 York Blvd. When: grand opening: 1 p.m.-9 p.m. Sunday; storytime, 2:30 p.m.; readings, 6:30 p.m.

Slake, a new showcase for long-form journalism, seems not only bent on resuscitating passionate reporting but also the grand tradition of literary partying, which can be a dangerous enterprise with a bunch of people who revel in the joys of a multi-clause sentence. The local magazine will host a night of readings from its second issue, themed "Crossing Over. " Authors will include Dana Johnson, John Albert, Joseph Mattson, Victoria Patterson, Rachel Resnick, Harry Shannon and Joe Donnelly.

Maurice Sendak's death was announced Tuesday just a few minutes before I was due at the residential foster home and school where I volunteer, teaching writing to abused teenagers. Sendak, the author and illustrator of "In the Night Kitchen," "Where the Wild Things Are"and other children's classics, once told NPR's Terry Gross that as a kid he thought that "adults seemed mostly dreadful. " I suspect the kids who find themselves in our foster care system would agree. I got to the school library before the class arrived, so the librarian and I had a moment to grieve about Sendak.

Though I have been an Angeleno in exile in the Bay Area for six years, I have remained a daily reader of The Times and an admirer of its real estate, housing, and urban affairs coverage. It was especially nice to read an article by Bradley Inman (March 30) in the real estate section. Being involved with housing, I have become familiar with Inman's work with the Bay Area Council and his writing in local publications. I have come to respect and enjoy his well-balanced and insightful commentary on problematic real estate issues and the wide range of topics and perspective that he uncovers.

Your article "Photographs Framed by Fiction" [Feb. 8] announced the readings of short stories by prominent actors at the Getty Center -- part of the series "Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story" conducted by New York's Symphony Space. The irony is that people cannot listen to these wonderful readings on either of Los Angeles' NPR stations, KCRW and KPCC. Fortunately, it is possible to listen to the broadcasts on your computer via the Internet. Here are Internet links to a few stations, plus the times that "Selected Shorts" are broadcast: wnyc.

"The Fifth Annual High School Stage Readings," readings of screenplays written by teenagers and performed by theater professionals, will be presented Sunday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Mark Taper Auditorium of the Los Angeles Central Library, 630 W. 5th St. Presented by the Scriptwriters Network's High School Fellowship program, the readings are "Reflections," by Jennifer Wells; "Connections," by Susan Zeile; "Travis," by Jennifer Marmor; and "Bluff of Truth," by Stephen Gruber.

Shelley Berman, Taylor Negron, Arlene Golonka and Richard Kline are among the celebrity cast set to perform staged readings of Malvin Wald's "Hollywood Trilogy" and Allan Byrnes' "The Elevator" at the Friars' Club in Beverly Hills on Tuesday as a benefit for the nonprofit West Coast Jewish Theatre. Monty Hall will also make an appearance. Tickets are $25 for the performance and reception; $50 with dinner. Reservations: (213) 466-1767.

In Spain, the tertulias, a kind of communal meeting, goes way back, before there were books, newspapers, radios and TVs. Spaniards felt the need for a mass get-together to discuss the events of the day, both topical and cultural, and would meet in town squares, bars or homes. Traditionally, the free-for-all debates and dialogues would eventually give way to more aesthetic impulses.

Shay Duffin, a Dublin-born actor known for his one-man play about Irish writer Brendan Behan, will appear at Ventura's City Bakery on Friday in an evening of anniversary readings from James Joyce's "Ulysses." Friday is the 85th anniversary of the single day in which Joyce's classic novel takes place. It is known to Joyce fans as "Bloomsday," after the book's main character, Dubliner Leopold Bloom, and over the years has become a time for Joyce readings. George Keenan, owner of City Bakery, said he initially had thought of lining up readers to go through the entire novel, but realized that he would need 40 even for an abridged 20-hour version.

Reaching out to a 30,000-strong Christian crowd at Liberty University on Saturday, Mitt Romney delivered the school's commencement address, half congratulating the students, and half delivering campaign remarks. In the speech, Romney reiterated his opposition to gay marriage in the wake of President Obama's announcement of personal support for the issue, and made tacit references to his own Mormon faith. For Romney's full remarks, read below: For the graduates, this moment marks a clear ending and a clear beginning.

Want to learn more about meat? There are several recent good books. "Whole Beast Butchery" by Ryan Farr with Brigit Binns (Chronicle, $40). Do you really like cutting meat? I mean, really like it? This book, from the owner of San Francisco's 4505 Meats, is packed with very detailed, somewhat graphic photos of that being done. Granted, most of us will never be in a position to break down a whole short loin of beef, but there is a certain reassurance in knowing how it's done.

MINNEAPOLIS — As a reward for last week's no-hitter against the Minnesota Twins, Jered Weaver took part in one of his favorite shows Tuesday night, presenting the top-10 list on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman. " "I watch Dave before I go to bed when I'm home, so it's pretty cool to be on the show," said Weaver, who filmed the segment at Target Field on Tuesday afternoon. "As soon as you hear Dave in your earpiece, it's a little nerve-racking, but it was fun. I had a lot of time to rehearse.

The reality TV show "Bait Car" is supposed to catch car thieves in the act. Undercover cops park a rigged car on the side of the road, conspicuously leaving the keys inside, while a television crew waits nearby for an unsuspecting passerby to take the bait and steal the car. But in one recent sting filmed in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the lead detective on the case ended up getting busted instead....

President Obama officially launched his re-election campaign with public rallies in Columbus, Ohio, and Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday.With that launch came a re-tooled stump speech which both defended his record in office and laid out the contrast with Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The speeches in both cities were largely the same. Here's a full transcript of his remarks in Columbus, following the acknowledgement of local leaders. OBAMA: "I want to thank so many of our Neighborhood Team Leaders for being here today.  You guys will be the backbone of this campaign.  And I want the rest of you to join a team or become a leader yourself, because we are going to win this thing the old-fashioned way -- door by door, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.

WASHINGTON - On the first Friday of every month, at precisely 8:30 a.m., the Bureau of Labor Statistics flicks a switch and the latest clue about the U.S. economy - the jobs report - gets transmitted all over the world. And then the frenzy begins. Politicians in Washington race for the mikes to proclaim that the economy is back, or maybe falling into an abyss. Investors from Brussels to Bangkok win and lose billions. And in American factories, offices and living rooms, you can almost hear a collective groan of dismay or sigh of relief.

Students in Garden Grove and throughout the county spent Dr. Seuss' birthday Monday doing something the author would have appreciated--reading. As part of the annual Read Across America event, the National Education Assn., along with several other literacy, education and community groups, sponsored activities to honor the late author Theodor Seuss Geisel and encourage literacy. Local schools sponsored pajama parties, poetry readings and author's days to recognize the annual event.

Caltrans will take new noise-level readings in a Carson neighborhood where residents say they deserve a freeway sound wall. "We've agreed to come back and take some additional sound readings," said Don Watson, Los Angeles regional director of the state Department of Transportation, after a meeting with residents last week. "We want to satisfy the residents. We think our readings are valid, but we'll recalculate and if the noise levels turn out to be higher, we'll make a change," Watson said.

Solar choices Re "Standing their sacred ground," April 24 The choice is not between disturbing Native American grave sites or building clean-energy projects; it's between continuing these huge, inefficient, enormously expensive and environmentally destructive boondoggles in the desert or using solar the way it should be used: with panels on every rooftop supplying that building's energy needs. The attempt to fit solar into the portfolio of big energy companies is a doomed strategy that may be good for Southern California Edison's bottom line but is bad for the desert environment and the species that live there.

The future of books Re "Reading, no batteries required," Opinion, April 22 Patt Morrison's otherwise intelligent contributions to this newspaper trip up on the romantic notion that some technologies have spiritual value and others do not. Would Johannes Gutenberg's colleagues have pined away for the calligraphic works done by generations of monks? Electronic devices make reading, for some people at least, easier, in addition to offering it in a sleek package that can also claim to be accessible, tactile and beautiful.