Vermin on the Mount believed literary readings needed irreverence to survive — the loose-format reading where the writer is allowed to be funny and the audience is allowed to drink. So Jim Ruland started it in Los Angeles in 2004 and has kept it running on its own irregular cadence ever since, currently at Book Show in Highland Park. The August installment features Nolan Knight at 7:30 in the evening. Five dollar suggested donation. Books for sale at the back. The audience is LA writers — the MFA crowd, the small press crowd, the literary magazine crowd — plus the people who have been showing up to Vermin since the original venue on Mount Washington.