What Mad Men read and more book news

photo: AMC

New York Magazine's Culture Vulture parses the books "Mad Men" character Don Draper has been reading and suggests some others he might enjoy. Apparently today's men don't read on TV (but the women do!)

Charles Bock and Richard Price will read at Central Park's Summerstage in New York July 31, and they've got a rock-show style poster to prove it.

Is How Fiction Works, the new book by literary critic James Wood, prescriptive? Yes, everyone agrees. But there's some debate about how devoted he is to realism -- and Wood has jumped in to clarify.

Things'll be getting hot in San Francisco next weekend, with Stephen Elliott, Daniel Handler and more reading at Dirty Words: Litquake's Tribute to Smut -- the event also promises burlesque dancers and a corset fashion show. It's a benefit for Litquake, the week-long festival of literariness coming in October.

Feeling hot already? The Barnes & Noble Review has a capsule selection of five books on swimming to help you cool down.

And finally: "In writing, I am not my face." - Debra Winger writes on writing in the Washington Post.

Carolyn Kellogg