In advance of his talk yesterday – which kicked off the first event in this year’s Bookworm International Literary Festival, Dave Eggers opens up about getting lost, visits to the Flying Pigeon Bicycle Factory, his narrative nonfiction writing process, balloon animals, and how publishing is most definitely not dying.

The Bookworm's Literary Festival kicks of TONIGHT (Friday, March 5), so over the next few weeks we'll be asking notable Beijingers: "What's on your bookshelf?" Who better to start with than Alex Pearson, owner of the Bookworm?

Peter Hessler has been one of the most consistently popular attendees at the Beijing International Literary Festival over the years, and his wonderful River Town and Oracle Bones are essential reading for China watchers. Hessler will be talking about his new work, Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory at this year’s festival – note the date of his talk has changed. A second talk, Beijing Through a Lens, featuring Hessler and Mike Meyer (Last Days of Old Beijing) has also been moved to a different time and bigger venue - which means more tickets will be available for this previously sold-out event (see details at the end of this post). In the meantime, the travel website WORLDHUM has published an interview with Hessler, in which in discusses the epic drives he undertook in writing his new book.

It’s time for the rest of us late-rising birds (I guess that would be owls, then?) to get our shot at buying tickets for the upcoming Bookworm International Literary Festival. Here, we list the events most likely to sell out fast, as well as some of our own recommendations. Get ‘em while they’re … not sold out!

In a ranking of the world’s twenty most beautiful bookstores, Beijing appears twice as much as any other city. Amidst converted cathedrals and Greek isle hole-in-the-walls, The Bookworm and Poplar Kid’s Republic show that they have what it takes to stand up with the prettiest of them.