Scott MacFarlane, whom I interviewed last June about his book, “The Hippie Narrative” (one of my “Best Books” of 2007), emailed me about a course he’s offering through Western Washington University’s Academy of Lifelong Learning.

His book is subtitled “A Literary Perspective on the Counterculture,” and if you missed my interview with him, you should know that MacFarlane is one of the first scholars to look at the works of the late 1960s and early 1970s in depth, in relation to each other and with the perspective of that tumultuous time of radical change.

For more about the course, click here

As someone who came of age during that time, I am particularly interested in the works of such writers as Richard Brautigan, Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson and others.

Surfing a bit, I came across a couple of Web sites that are insightful and informative.

To learn more, click here

and here

So carry on, check them out, and dig it, readers.

Spokane may be known for its fragrant Lilac Festival that takes place each May, but April brings another delightful scent to the valley — that of good books.

The Get Lit! Festival, billed as the “Northwest’s Best Festival for Readers and Writers,” features award-winning novelist Diana Abu-Jaber, Turkish-born Yesho Atil, former Western Washington University student D.S. Butterworth, social critic Naomi Wolf, poet Thomas Lynch, Montana’s David James Duncan, social commentator Karen Karbo, poetry columnist B.T. Shaw and many others, April 16-19 in Spokane and Cheney.

Sponsored by Eastern Washington University Press, the festival began in 1997 as a way to “inform the regional community with nationally and internationally renowned authors and poets, while it also increases awareness of the exceptional literary talent living and writing in the greater Inland Northwest.”

Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in poetry slams (including some for teens and younger children), writing workshops and panel discussions.

Click here for a complete schedule of events and registration information.

Do you choose your “to read” list from the New York Times best-sellers or the Pacific Northwest Independent Bookstore list?

No complaints with those choices,of course, but for some noteworthy books that may be new to you, here are a couple of ideas.

I just received, from CBC News, the winners of the CBC Literary Awards. Among them: “In a Garden,” by Shelagh Plunkett of Montreal; “Vidh,” by Phyllis Nakonechny of Swift Current, Sask.; and “Preservation” by Alex Leslie of Richmond, B.C. For the short list (a list of candidates for final consideration), click here

For more books worth checking out, go to Great Britain’s Man Booker Prize Web site, for a list of the best novels by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Among those titles, you’ll find Michael Ondaatje’s “The English Patient,” Graham Swift’s “Last Orders” and Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children.”

For a more comprehensive list, click here.

Want to know how award-winning authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults find their inspiration? Western Washington University once again plays host to the fifth annual Bond Children’s Literature Conference on March 1.

Named for reading educators Guy L. and Fredericka Bond, WWU’s English department sponsors presentations, book sales and autograph sessions with authors Chris Crutcher ("Deadline,” “Whale Talk,” “The Sledding Hill"); Christopher Paul Curtis ("The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963,” “Bud, Not Buddy"); Eric Rohmann ("My Friend Rabbit,” “Time Flies"); and John Rocco ("Wolf! Wolf!") from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 1 at the Performing Arts Center Concert Hall.

A reception for the authors, co-sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, is from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 29 at Wilson Library; reservations are required by Feb. 22, by emailing Connie.Mallison@wwu.edu.

The cost to attend the conference is $90 general, $45 students and retired teachers, if received by Feb. 16; registration received after Feb. 16 is $15 more. Pregistration is required for the event.

For more information, call Nancy Johnson at 650-3227, or click here for details on the event.

Search your memory for song lyrics, essays, poems and other writings that had a profound influence on your life. What comes to mind?

I recently read the sequel to the best-selling anthology “The American Reader,” edited by mother-and-son team Dianae Ravitch and Michael Ravitch.

Their new book, “The English Reader: What Every Literate Person Needs to Know,” includes not only well-known writings by such authors and thinkers as William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton and Virginia Woolf, but selections by 17th-century poet Richard Lovelace ("I could not love thee Deare, so much, Lov’d I not Honour More"); 19th-century journalist and social scientist Walter Bagehot, who wrote about the necessity of tolerance in a democracy; and Queen Elizabeth I’s “Speech on the Eve of Facing the Spanish Armada.

What’s especially inviting is the Ravitchs’ introduction, in which they say that at one time, these writings were “words that by and large, every educated person used to know, and should know now.”

The words of the writers included in this book have shaped our lives, whether we recognize it or not, from the way we think of Adam and Eve, as described by Milton, to the film version of Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.”

Most of all, they say, they chose their selections “guided by the most fundamental reason for reading: sheer pleasure.”

It’s a delightful and inspiring book; one that can remain on your nightstand or on your nearest bookshelf for a good long while.