MONDAY:

Award-winning author and columnist Maggie Jackson will be at the Busboys and Poets in D.C. to talk about Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. If a dark age is characterized by a decline in civilization, and Jackson believes it’s only just now “coming,” she hasn’t been watching enough reality TV. 6:30 p.m.

Dick Meyer, a long-time CBS journalist who now spends his time with NPR, will be making an appearance at Politics and Prose to discuss his book Why We Hate Us. We don’t know about Meyer, but we don’t hate us. We’re perfectly comfortable with the concept of ‘us,’ no matter what our parents say. 7 p.m.

TUESDAY:

So there’s this author from the area named George Pelecanos, and he’s written a couple of crime novels. He was also involved with the writing and production team on some show on HBO. Heard of him? Well, he’s going to be at Politics and Prose to talk about his latest book, Turnaround. 7 p.m.

Raed Jarrar will be at the Busboys and Poets in D.C. to sign and discuss The Iraq War Blog, An Iraqi Family’s Inside View of the First Year of the Occupation. 6 p.m.