A WRITER'S WIT |
My Book World
OFTEN, if I’m involved reading two or three lengthy books at one time, I may spend two to four weeks completing them.
I am in one of those periods right now, perusing a lengthy biography of author E. M. Forster, revisiting George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eight-Four, a novel I read fifty years ago for college freshman orientation, and Jun'ichirō Tanizaki’s The Makioka Sisters.
Each weekend, however, I do watch C-SPAN’s Book-TV, forty-eight straight hours of recorded author readings of new nonfiction literature hitting the shelves, often recording the ones I want to watch and viewing them later in the week. Sometimes the reading venue is a coveted bookstore, such as DC’s Politics and Prose, or it might be a university setting. Sometimes, conservative, sometimes progressive. Many times, the subject matter is not political at all. Now, here is the best part, you can view any one of these readings at Book-TV’s Web site at any time. You do not have to have cable TV. And if you do wish to watch them on television, you can view and download and print a copy of the weekend’s schedule. Below I list a couple of readings I recently found interesting.
As editor of Sports Illustrated, Esquire, and Rolling Stone, McDonell reveals scintillating details about his relationship with such writers as Hunter S. Thompson. His fascinating presentation sustained my interest throughout. First aired February 18, 2107.
Dean Baker. Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Washington DC: Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2016. In this book Baker “argues that government policies, not globalization or the natural workings of the free market, have led to the upward redistribution of wealth seen around the world over the past four decades.” His logical and comprehensive lecture offers one of the most compelling arguments I’ve ever heard on the subject. First aired January 17, 2107.
NEXT TIME: New Yorker Fiction 2017