I have never done this before, but I will admit it was kind of fun. Nearly every weekend, as part of the weekend programming for Book TV, C-SPAN features a live in-depth, three hour discussion with an author. Today’s discussion was with Simon Winchester, an […]

Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. —J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer, 1782 The one absolutely certain way of bringing […]

Here’s an interesting twist to the report issued last week about the country’s reading habits, or lack thereof. American book sellers are selling fewer books. Can it be that there are just too many that are published? In an article in the Chicago Sun-Times, authors […]

Do the media have any responsibility in keeping fiction and poetry alive in America? That’s the question the Poynter Institute’s Book Babes ask in response to the recent report issued by the National Endowment for the Arts. As I posted here on my blog, earlier […]

“In 1803, [under the Sedition Act] a grand jury in Columbia County, New York, indicted Harry Croswell for seditious libel against President Jefferson,” writes author Ron Chernow in his wonderful new biography, Alexander Hamilton. As his defense lawyer, Croswell wanted Hamilton. The case generated intense […]

Simply put, nobody reads anymore. According to a survey released this morning by the National Endowment for the Arts, in this world of video games, movies and televisions the size of football fields, fewer people are putting their noses in a book these days. “The […]

I want to apologize to any regular readers for being a poor blogger. I have been out of town, so I haven’t had time to post anything. I promise to keep up. So here is an interesting story about the fate of being a big […]

Book lovers will enjoy this Web site. “On this site you will find the British Library’s two copies of Johann Gutenberg’s Bible, the first real book to be printed using the technique of printing which Gutenberg invented in the 1450s,” says the home page. Here […]

Here it comes. President Clinton’s big autobiography is scheduled to hit stores next week–all 957 pages of it. Politics aside, I believe this will be an important book. From everything I have read, this book promises to be a fantastic read. I saw him speak […]

Here is a book I might have to put on my wish list. Did I mention I have a birthday coming up? This is the publisher’s description: “In this sweeping history, Paul Starr shows how politics created our media world, from the emergence of the […]