Living in the Denver metro area, it's easy to take for granted the ready access we have to high-profile authors. Check out the book-signing schedules of local stores - most notably the Tattered Cover and the Boulder Book Store - and you'll find amazing writers pulling into town weekly, if not nightly.

Authors love a successful independent bookstore - and many make it a point to stop in Denver on their sweeps across the country. That simply isn't the case in many other places.

For those who haven't yet taken advantage of this great form of entertainment, I suggest you give it a try. Authors are generally incredibly smart people who are entertaining and thought-provoking - and did I also mention these events are free?

That said, get out your calendars. Below, a few of the notables coming this spring. (For specifics, check the stores' Web sites: Tattered Cover is www.tatteredcover.com; Boulder Book Store is www.boulderbookstore.com. And my apologies to other stores in the area who also bring in authors. I hope to note some of those events down the road. )

April 4: Anne Lamott, Tattered

April 9: Jodi Picoult , Tattered

April 15: John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry, Tattered

April 16: Marc Brown (great one for the kids, as Brown is author of the popular Arthur books), Tattered

April 23: Jonathan Lethem, Boulder; Tattered, April 24

April 26: Richard Preston, Boulder

May 3: Walter Isaacson , Tattered

May 4: Nathaniel Philbrick, Tattered

May 14: Barbara Kingsolver, Tattered

May 15: Jacques Pepin, Tattered

May 16: Sherman Alexie, Tattered; May 17, Boulder

May 17: Michael Chabon , Tattered; May 18, Boulder

May 21: Deepak Chopra, Tattered; May 22, Boulder

May 30: Michael Connelly, Tattered

INSPIRED TITLES:

You Will Make Money in Your Sleep, by Emily White (Scribner, $25). God knows I haven't done so well awake.

TAKE A STRETCH-YOUR-MIND BREAK

I know, I know. You're busy surfing the net for photos of celebrities caught without their makeup - or, ahem, underclothes - on. But just in case you want to waste time at work on a more high-minded diversion, word comes from David Daley, former books editor at the Hartford Courant and Details magazine, of his new Web site. Dubbed FiveChapters.com, the site offers short stories in stretch-break chunks: "Every week we serialize a new story in five parts, with a new story beginning every Monday and ending on Friday," he says, in an e-mail.

The site has already featured stellar authors, including Arthur Phillips, Jennifer Egan, Adam Rapp, Anthony Swofford, Jess Walter, and Aimee Bender. Next week, in honor of National Poetry Month, it offers a poem by Meghan O'Rourke, culture editor at Slate, and local author Nick Arvin also makes an appearance in April.

"I launched this in hopes of creating a fun home for serious fiction, and fighting for readers online who might otherwise turn to a gossip site or celebrity blog when bored at work and Web surfing," says Daley.

Check it out - er, provided you can tear yourself away from Britney's latest hairdo, or, ahem, whatever.

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