Jim Holt, New York Times bestselling author of the international bestseller Why Does the World Exist? appears Thursday, June 7, at Labyrinth Books, 122 Nassau Street. The 6 p.m. reading is part of the Library Live at Labyrinth series.

Holt will discuss and sign copies of his new collection of essays, When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought. According to the Times’ Parul Sehgal, “In these pieces, plucked from the last 20 years, Holt takes on infinity and the infinitesimal, the illusion of time, the birth of eugenics, the so-called new atheism, smart phones, and distraction. It is an elegant history of recent ideas. Part of what makes Holt so exciting is his ability to gather these disciplines under his shingle, to make their knottiest questions not only intelligible but enticing, without sacrificing rigor.”

Jim Holt writes about math, science, and philosophy for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Review of Books.

Library Live at Labyrinth is co-sponsored by the library and Labyrinth Books.