Author and rocker Wesley Stace (of John Wesley Harding) reads from Patrick Hamilton's The Slaves of Solitude

Here’s an idea whose time has definitely come.

Via Shelf Awareness, we found out yesterday that Word bookstore in Brooklyn is starting a new reading series next month that’s sure to be a hoot: literary karaoke.

The first literary karaoke has been dubbed “Greatest Hits of the ’90s.” According to the events page on Word’s website, attendees should come prepared to read a passage from one of their favorite books published during the 1990s. The catch is each reader gets only three minutes to wow the crowd with their interpretive reading skills before getting booted (and hopefully not booed) from the stage.

So if you’ve been looking for a good excuse to dip back into your old Douglas Coupland, Brett Easton Ellis, Banana Yoshimoto, or Haruki Murakami novels, you’ve got one.