For you Neil Gaiman fans out there (who happen to be local to Berkeley), he'll be performing a full three-hour reading (two 90-minute acts with intermission) of his new book, Coraline, at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley on Tuesday, July 2nd. $10 for adults, $5 for ages 8 to 16. All admissions come with a $3 discount on the book, should you choose to buy it.

I'm so there. I've seen him read excerpts to standing-room only crowds at Cody's, and he's a great reader of his own works. It looks like this time they're doing it one better, on the very release day of the book. Of course, it doesn't hurt that this church is on my block, just a few hundred feet from my place.

At the moment (and through the Pittsburgh trip) I've been reading stories from Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors, and I'm absolutely in the mood to walk down the block to hear one of my favorite authors sit down for a few hours and read his new book to me aloud.

I'm going to miss this place.

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Update: There are still a few tickets left when I went this morning. You can order them online.