Five Must-See Arts and Culture Events This Week in Metro Phoenix

By Phoenix New Times Staff Mon., Jan. 28 2013 at 6:00 AM

We know, the beginning of the work week sucks. But if you take a quick look at the calendar, you'll see we're off to a pretty good week of art events, sports games, dance parties, and more. Here are our must-see events from now to the weekend...

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Monday, January 28: Tsundoku Anonymous Book Club @ Practical Art
In an effort to ease the guilt of bookworms with unread books on their shelves, Practical Art, 5070 North Central Avenue, is hosting a monthly challenge. Tsundoku, Japanese for "buying books and not reading them; letting books pile up unread on shelves or floors or nightstands," is the inspiration for Practical Art's latest book club.

The rules: members submit titles they've had lying around their shelves. Books are drawn in rounds and assigned each month. On the second and fourth Mondays of the month, from 7 to 8 p.m., Tsundoku Anonymous Book Club members meet to discuss the month's assigned title (January 28's is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson) and can successfully cross a "todo" off the list. Snacks and drinks are provided. -- Claire Lawton

Bill Streever

Tuesday, January 29: Bill Streever: "Why Do We Love Hot Places?" @ ASU Art Museum
We aren't exactly meteorology fanatics. The closest we get to weather-related science is browsing through the usually sunny icons of our iPhone forecast. Sunny image = happy. Biologist and nature writer Bill Streever is a little (read: way) more advanced in weather matters -- specifically, why we like that little sunny indicator so much.

Streever visits ASU Art Museum to discuss what draws people to heat in his lecture "Why Do We Love Hot Places?" He'll talk about much-misunderstood thermal energy and his own exploits chronicled in his book Heat: Adventures in the World's Fiery Places. -- Becky Bartkowski