Let's take a moment to plan, shall we? You've already highlighted September 6 as the date for the CBC Radio One Book Club with William Gibson (you haven't? www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub/ for you, then), so let's concentrate on the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival's dates. October 16 to 21 is the fest proper, with an emphasis this year (its 20th) on such big-name award winners as Alistair MacLeod, Kiran Desai, Nancy Huston, Vincent Lam, Peter Behrens, and Brian Doyle; CBC Radio's Eleanor Wachtel delivers the closing Bill Duthie Memorial Lecture. There will be lots of coverage in the Straight in the coming weeks, plus full details at www.writersfest.bc.ca/ later this month. Of particular note are three special festival events. Naomi Klein discusses The Shock Doctrine on October 4. Jean Chrétien reminisces with A Passion for Politics on November 15. And Yann Martel introduces the illustrated version of his smash hit Life of Pi on December 4. Tickets for those last three will go fast; check www.ticketmaster.ca/ or 604-280-3311 in early September.