2 Books Trip Lightly Through Area

Travel guides serve two purposes. They provide vicarious adventures for armchair travelers and thoroughly researched information for every kind of vacation. John Triggs’ epic 17,300-mile bicycle journey is chronicled in “America at 10 Miles Per Hour,” which includes a description of his meandering through Ventura and Santa Barbara.

The “Family Adventure Guide” by local authors Laura Kath Fraser and Pamela Price Lechtman explores both well-known and off-the-beaten-path places in which to frolic, with or without the kids, between the Mexican border and Hearst Castle. Happy hunting.

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Our fascination with the billion-dollar industry that is Hollywood never diminishes. And covering the film industry is itself a million-dollar industry that employs thousands of print, radio and television reporters, commentators, gossip columnists and financial gurus. Historian William Gordon feeds our insatiable need to know in his “Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book,” which he will sign at 7 tonight in Barnes & Noble, 4360 E. Main St., Ventura.

Other events scheduled at the bookstore: Scrabble players will gather at 6 p.m. Friday. Bring your own board and a partner. Judith Love Cohen will discuss and sign “You Can Be a Woman Cardiologist” at noon Saturday. Other books in the “You Can Be” series for young girls include engineer, architect, zoologist and marine biologist.

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Happenings at Borders, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks: Musician/author Stephen Bishop, an Oscar- and Grammy-nominated recording artist, will sign his book about rock’s greatest hits, “Songs in the Rough,” at 7:30 p.m. Friday. On Sunday an open-mike poetry session begins at 6 p.m., and the poetry discussion group meets at 8 p.m.

Actor, comedian, songwriter, author Steve Allen has been entertaining us for 50 years. He has written hundreds of songs and dozens of books including “Dumbth,” “Murder on the Glitter Box” and “How to Be Funny,” and he is an active member of the Skeptic’s Society for Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Meet him at Borders at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

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There may still be time to register for the poetry workshop directed by Marilyn Hochheiser and Ron Reichick scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at 5406 E. Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley. The fee is $20. Call 522-7575.

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The wall separating Adventures for Kids, 3457 Telegraph Road, Ventura, and Kideos, their audio bookstore, will soon come tumbling down. In anticipation, a one-day-only 35%-off sale of all picture books shelved on that wall is scheduled this Saturday. During the renovation, which begins Monday, Adventures will be closed for about 12 days.

Frances Halpern is co-host with Jon O’Brien of “Beyond Words” at 10 a.m. Sundays on KCLU-FM (88.3), Ventura County’s National Public Radio station.