If You Aren’t Going to the National Book Awards…

… You could head up to Columbia’s Dodge Hall, where Yannick Murphy and Diane Williams will be reading from their recently published books (Signed, Mata Hari and It Was Like My Trying to Have a Tender-Hearted Nature, respectively) at 7 p.m. Or, if the East Village is more your thing, the Boxcar Lounge has a “Class of 2008″ reading at 8 p.m., as Jami Attenberg presents a lineup that includes Will Leitch, Daphne Beal, and Vintage‘s associate director of publicity, Sloane Crosley.

“I’m not sure what I’m reading tonight,” Crosley admits, though “it’s safe to say” it’ll probably be something from her forthcoming essay collection, I Was Told There’d Be Cake. “The one other reading I’ve done reminded me of watching ice skaters fall on the ice and then merrily glide along as if they haven’t sprained their coccyx. Except once I stumble on a word, it usually means I have about 5 more stumbles coming. My hope is to become both a better reader—and a better ice skater, actually—before April, when the book is out.”

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting this Thursday, February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Michael Brito (Edelman Digital), and Tim Devane (bitly). Register now.