Internet advice columnists, or really, advice columnists in general have hold on a very slight fascination for me. I really, really passionately dislike syrupy types like Delilah, but I do enjoy knowing weird details about the personal lives of strangers. So Dear Abby is fine. But as far as life wisdom goes, I found Katie Haney’s Reading Between the Texts series on The Hairpin more informative and delightful than just about anything else I read last year. Maybe an exaggeration, but let’s roll with this.
Cheryl Strayed spent two years writing the anonymous advice column Dear Sugar on The Rumpus. Strayed mixed her pearls of wisdom with personal essay in equal measure, all while writing a memoir about the 1,100 mile trek along the Pacific Crest Trail after suffering several personal tragedies. Just read some of these. Both question and answer get super intense. And people really respond to it, especially considering that her event at the Dallas Museum of Art tonight is sold out. However, tickets to the simulcast are still available.
Also tonight, we have one of our fantastic, free Big Read events. You guys remember you’re supposed to be reading Fahrenheit 451, right? I’ve given you homework. I never ask you for anything. You can probably, probably pick up a copy at Half Price Books on Northwest Highway tonight, where Wordspace, Dallas’ own nonprofit literary association, hosts a discussion titled “Growing Up With Science Fiction.” The panel will be led by Wordspace’s Charles Dee Mitchell, and includes Jerome Weeks from KERA; novelist Ben Fountain, winner of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction; and Ken Ruffin, president of the National Space Society, North Texas Division. These folks will speak about the role science fiction has (or hasn’t) played in their lives. Not everyone’s as militant a sci fi fan as Roman from Party Down, so the discourse should be lively. We highly recommend you check this out. And maybe head over to La Duni in NorthPark for drinks and dinner before things get started.
For more to do tonight, go here.
