The man, the legend, the writer who puts himself in crazy situations to get the best material, will read from his new book, Riding Toward Everywhere, at Book Soup tonight @ 7pm. Marc Weingarten for the LA Times says it best: "As one of our more intrepid cultural interpreters, William T. Vollmann has traveled with the mujahedin in Afghanistan, smoked crack with hookers and camped out at the North Pole. So it's not surprising to......

It's time for the LAIST prize roundup in the book world. John Banville, in a surprise turn, has won the Booker Prize for his novel, The Sea, beating out favorite Julian Barnes, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith, Sebastian Barry, and Ali Smith. Apparently the voting was as close as it's ever been. There's a great 3-part interview with Banville at the litblog The Elegant Variation. The Nobel Prize for Literature has not yet been announced......