The Litquake festival is taking place in San Francisco this evening and Saturday.

One of the best things about living in San Francisco are all of the free readings at area bookstores like A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, Book Passage, Cody's, and Booksmith (which even gives away author trading cards. Most nights there is a writer worth seeing and on many nights it is hard to decide who to go see.

To help keep track, Sfstation has a weekly listing of events which is available by email, the Chronical has their listings online and the bookstores have websites and email lists.

This weekend will be more difficult than most with the first Litquake festival tonight and Saturday and Green Apple Books celebrating their 35th anniversary with events on Saturday and Sunday.

The schedule for Litquake kicks off tonight with a panel called "Dystopia/Utopia: Can the Bay Area Uphold a New Generation of Writers?" On Saturday from noon to 6 pm, there are readings in two locations by more than sixty writers. It concludes with an After Shock party starting at 9 pm.

Just a few of the writers include Po Bronson, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Karen Joy Fowler, Daphne Gottlieb, Danilel Handler (who is best known as Lemony Snicket), Keith Knight, Josh Korbluth, Dave Eggers, and Susie Bright.