"Oh we're just people-watching on Third and St. Marks..." ~joe purdy

I live about fifty feet away from the intersection of Third and St. Marks. It definitely is a good place to people-watch. St. Marks is such an awesome street. Have I mentioned that I'm in love with my neighborhood?? Living in Greenwich Village is amazing.

I've been trying to take advantage of living in the city as much as possible. Last night I went to this awesome (free) event in Central Park. Two of my favorite authors read from their most recent novels and then participated in a round table discussion. Jennifer Egan read first, from The Keep. I've read all of Jennifer Egan's novels (she's only written three) and I absolutely love her. I think The Keep is my favorite of the three. It was so cool to hear the words of the novel coming directly out of her mouth. I wrote a little bit about the book here. Then Marisha Pessl read from her debut novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics. I was so excited to hear her read and speak because this novel blew me away. If you haven't read it, go do so now. Seriously. I think it's brilliant. The New York Times (among many other publications) named it one of the ten best books of 2006. Pessl is especially skilled at creating dynamic, interesting, realistic characters, and I love her use of allusions. The book is filled with "thousands" of references (according to amazon.com) that are wonderfully woven into the text. During the discussion she talked about outlining the plot on an Excel spreadsheet before she started writing, which I thought was so interesting (and necessary for her novel, because there's a lot going on and she had to keep track of what Blue knew at what time). Listening to Pessl read was such an enjoyable experience. She's very dramatic. At one point during the discussion after the readings she mentioned that she was in plays, and it didn't surprise me at all because she seems like a natural-born actress. She did different voices for the different characters and was very theatrical. When I was reading the book I found it hilarious at times, and it was even more funny listening to Pessl read it out loud. So I'm very glad that I had the chance to hear those two brilliant women speak. I highly recommend both of their works.