BOOKS—Tonight, Portland novelist and purveyor of spare, marvelously fucked-up prose Monica Drake reads from her very first collection of short stories, The Folly of Loving Life, published by local press Future Tense, because we really do live in a city with a surplus of excellent writing and worthy alternatives to the big-house Goliaths of publishing. What a time to be alive! MEGAN BURBANK
Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 7:30 pm, FREE
LECTURE—It’s a lot to ask, we know, but yank your gaze away from that refurbished Sega Genesis for a couple of hours tonight, and indulge Dr. Adam Gazzaley, who’ll present all sorts of info about what video games do to your brain. It’s part of a lecture series called Healthy Pleasures, Unhealthy Habits, so probably don’t expect all good news. The more you know, though, right? DIRK VANDERHART
Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 7 pm, $27-50, all ages