How did one three-block stretch of the Lower East Side become such a magnet for the literary scene that competing book events will be going on tonight at 8 p.m.? Danged if I know, but you’ve got an interesting choice to make. If sports is your thing, the Happy Ending Lounge (just off Grand) is hosting another installment of the Varsity Letters reading series, with Gus Alfieri, Carlo DeVito, and Cecil Harris covering the winter trifecta: basketball, football, and hockey. If you’d rather talk about sex, authors Virginia Vitzthum (I Love You, Let’s Meet) and Dawn Eden (The Thrill of the Chaste) will discuss whether or not chastity is a good idea for single women at Lolita (on the corner of Broome and Allen).
And next Wednesday, the other Happy Ending reading series returns for the second half of the 2006-07 season, with musician/authors Adam Rapp and John Lurie. The Wednesday after that, Rachel Kramer Bussel takes over the bar for her In the Flesh reading series (also, as it happens, featuring Vitzthum this time around).