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Written on the Dock of the Bay: July 19, 2013

Written on the Dock of the Bay is your weekly guide to literary and bookish happenings in the pleasantly literary and bookish Bay Area.

BAY AREA BOOK WORLD BREAKING NEWS

App that puts you in the book // When I went to Edinburgh last Spring, I had a map that marked each Harry Potter moment with something like, "This is the cemetery where Tom Riddle was conceived," or, "This is where J.K Rowling ate her sandwiches."Now there's an app, found at placingliterature.com, designed to help map out the appropriate routes for anyone who wants to walk inside the real-life, Bay Area settings of his or her favorite books. It's just starting out, but so far you can see a road map to settings like the dark Lobos Creek sewer opening in Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job as well as the home of dissatisfied wife Lena Ying in The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.

BAY AREA BOOK WORLD HAPPENINGS

Friday, July 19

Litquake festival sneak preview // Litquake is far away, but don't worry. Lit Tease will help get you through it. At the sneak peak Lit Tease, you'll get to see some Lit Crawl curators, including The Day My Nipple Fell Off, AfroSurreal, Global Poetry in Translation, Hyphen magazine, and Michelle Tea reading for McSweeney's. Wait, did someone just say The Day My Nipple Fell Off? Google that book if you dare. // DETAILS: Friday, July 19, 8pm. Swedish American Hall. 2174 Market Street, San Francisco

Sunday, July 21

City Lights fiesta // // City Lights is still celebrating being alive after all these years. 60, in fact. And you're still alive, I bet! You should celebrate, too, with some good poetry. At this latest event, San Francisco's Poet Laureate, Alejandro Murguia, who was recently interviewed on Crosscurrents, will be hosting the first round of poetry, which includes Leticia Hernández-Linares, Tomas Riley, indie singer/songwriter Diana Gameros, and the poet Brenda Montaño. // DETAILS: Sunday, July 21, 2pm. Jack Kerouac Alley. 257 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco

Monday, July 22

1984 play // To quote Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in reference to the NSA intelligence leaks, "I think people have gotten the idea that there’s an Orwellian state out there that somehow we’re operating in." She's referring to George Orwell's 1984, a novel about surveillance. OK, Orwell's 1984 may have been a warning against Stalinism, but that doesn't mean we can't have the sneaky suspicion we're being watched, 1984-style. This Monday night at the Booksmith, feel the relevancy as Michael Gene Sullivan brings a special performance from the stage adaptation of 1984. // DETAILS: Monday, July 22, 7:30pm. The Booksmith. 1644 Haight, San Francisco

Thursday, July 25

Impossible Lives of Greta Wells reading // Think about the other versions of yourself that could have existed. They could have made better decisions They could have a better life.  Ok, nevermind, that sounds awful, and you probably shouldn't do it. But in The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by San Francisco-based author Andrew Sean Greer, Greta literally transports into the lives she might have lived had she been born in different eras. Sometimes she's a bohemian adulteress. Other times, she's a wife. It depends on the hour and the year and also the century. Come to Mrs. Dalloway's and be the 2013 version of yourself who comes to hear Sean Greer read from his new book.  // DETAILS: Thursday, July 25, 7:30pm. Mrs. Dalloway's. 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley