Mwhahaha. The Book Grocer rubs her hands together greedily as she contemplates the week ahead. Festival season kicks off this week, and its offerings may be summarised with one word: excellent. Tuesday: VS Naipaul fans will want to head to Daunt Books tonight to hear Patrick French and AN Wilson discuss French’s recent biography of the Nobel Prize-winning author, The World Is What It Is, heralded as a “magnificent achievement” (7pm, £5). Also on:......

Diaries out, bibliophiles. Festival season is almost upon us. No, not the festival season that will have you rolling around in mud or throwing your pants at the stage (well, you could throw your pants at the stage, and we’d certainly provide moral support for that endeavour). We’re talking literary festival season – Christmas in July for the book geeks among us. Let’s start with the little guy first. London Lit Plus launched just......

March already? How did that happen? The perils of having our head buried in a book so much of the time, no doubt. If we must emerge this week from our cosy little book-enclosed chrysalis, it’ll likely be to head to the following events. Monday: The RSL-sponsored TS Eliot Memorial meeting brings together award-winning poets Alice Oswald and Kathleen Jamie for an evening of readings from their work. Both have been lauded for the......

Perhaps your New Year’s resolutions have all made their way to the rubbish bin by now. You’re sneaking ciggies again, you’re spending more nights at the pub than not, and you’ve worked out exactly two times, despite the shiny new gym membership. Don’t worry, you’re in good company. The history of literature is filled with stories of writers and their vices. It may just be a sign of genius. Still, you can up your......

Just out the Van: Autumn is definitely upon us - time to start wrapping up at home with a good book. Or you could throw caution to the (nippy) wind and head to Book Slam next Thursday to bask in the warm glow of literati (gliterati?) including Sarfraz Manzoor (reading from his memoir "Greetings from Bury Park"), Zimbabwean singer-songwriter Netsayi, and poet Polar Bear... Next Thursday at Neighbourhood, £5/£6, 12 Acklam Road, W10 5QZ,......

Always on the scout for the best the city has to offer, Londonist has caught wind of a cheeky little theatre deal to tempt you into one of its most vibrant and newly buffed up venues. Vernon God Little is currently showing at the Young Vic, just down The Cut from its bigger, creakier sibling, The Old Vic (no relation). Vernon God Little, the novel, won the Man Booker Prize in 2003 with its......

Two bits of theatre news before we slink away for a distinctly thespian-free weekend: New Season, New Building for Young Vic The Young Vic theatre has been on walkabout for the last two years while its original home has been demolished and rebuilt to a fabulous new design. Having toured shows to 41 theatres in 31 cities since the redesign started, the company is no doubt looking forward to settling back into its home......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. Should we bother copyrighting our work in the age of the internet? Can a Booker Prize-winning novelist be wild? Are George W. Bush's abuses limited to the present, or do they affect the past as well? Is all of our complaining responsible for the current surge in literary events? And if so, does that......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. This part of the world is doing quite well in literary circles these days, what with all of the praise heaped on the Booker Prize nominees and Harold Pinter winning the Nobel Prize. Heck, we've even noticed some American publications musing over their readerships' envy of British literature. And to really drive the point......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. The late summer/early fall book publishing frenzy seems to be finally dying down, and the announcement of the Booker Prize winner yesterday is appearing to serve as its exclamation point. Yes, if the list of "Forthcoming Titles" on Blackwell's website is any indication, we're not going to have nearly as much new stuff to......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. It's finally here -- this year's Booker Prize winner will be announced this Monday in a ceremony at Guildhall. The finalists, for those who may have forgotten, are Kazuo Ishiguro, Juliane Barnes, Zadie Smith, Ali Smith, John Banville, and Sebastian Barry. This year's has been quite a contest, and we can't wait to see......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. The celebs of the London literary world seem to be keeping quiet this week in the lull before the Booker Prize is announced, leaving space for the little guys. And they are taking full advantage, it would seem, with three enticing readings this week. We are most curious about Decongested (see below), because of......

The longlist for the 2005 Booker Prize was announced yesterday to considerable praise. Word on the street is that this is the strongest crop of British novels in decades, with a mix of literary greats, first-time novelists, and long-time midlist authors deserving of accolades. You’ll recognize names like Coetzee, McEwan, Ishiguro, Rushdie, and Zadie Smith. Names you might be getting to know well quite soon include Tash Aw, Marina Lewycka, and Harry Thompson, and......

Yes, yes. There, there. All of you literary lovers out there now have a new reason to visit Londonist every Tuesday. It is here, yes, right here, on this Tuesday and on every Tuesday to come, that Londonist will be bringing you the very best and the very greatest of literary releases and readings and happenings around London. Yes, even writers have to get out of the flat every so often. Even bookworms need......