Zombie Spaceship Wasteland — not to be confused with Flight of the Living Dead — is Patton Oswalt's new book. Legendary grouch Harlan Ellison loves it, as do the usual retinue of alt-lit folk (Eggers, Vowell et al). So, is it a book about zombies, spaceships or wastelands? It's all of the above, and in this landscape of essays, Oswalt looks, listens and laughs at relatives, greeting cards, and monsters. As far as spaceships go, Oswalt looks so uncomfortable in general population that he constantly seems looking frantically over at stage left for the first available one out. In his world, wastelands exist somewhere between T.S. Eliot poems and wastelands now available in both teenage and pre-teen sizes. And yet Oswalt represents that aspect of the comedy of humiliation that manifests itself as endurance and patience, a lump of coal that, over decades of crushing pressures, has become a beautiful wrinkled diamond. Dark Delicacies, 3512 W. Magnolia, Burbank, Sun., Jan. 30, 2 p.m., free; books is $24. (888) DARKDEL, darkdel.com. Also at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., W. Hlwyd.; Fri., Jan. 29.

Sun., Jan. 30, 2 p.m., 2011

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