One of the podcasts that I listen to regularly is the NY Times Book Review. Most of the time it is a bit too high-brow for me; as soon as someone mentions Nietzsche, I'm lost. However, I keep the show on my playlist because of a short segment they do during the last few minutes called Bestseller News. Jennifer Schuessler, the presenter, is warm and engaging. I can always hear the smile or smirk in her voice. Even when she is talking about a book I would never read, she draws me in. I would love to hear Schuessler on one of the pop-culture podcasts I listen to, like Slate's Culture Gabfest or NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour.
Q: Do any of you listen to book review podcasts? Do you have a favorite presenter?
TBR LIST: Time to check the status of my TBR list! Yes, I know everyone else did it in their first post of the year, but I'm always late :-).
I currently have 227 titles on my TBR list. Only three of the titles are ones I added in 2008, so I guess I did OK in my effort to either read or purge the oldest books from my list. There are still 50-odd titles left that were added to the list in 2009, but I don't think I will be addressing that right away. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've developed a desire to read more current books. If you know me, this isn't exactly out of character. My tastes are decidedly retro, but every few months I dip my foot into the pop culture pool to gauge the temperature. Once I've familiarized myself with the current Top 40 charts and the latest TV shows and movies, I crawl back into my cave. I'm actually a little surprised that it took me this long to do the same with books.
ON MY BEDSIDE TABLE: Besides the new Keith Richard memoir, I have a couple books by Larry Winget, People Are Idiots and I Can Prove It! and Your Kids Are Your Own Fault. I read one of his books on finance a while back and while I didn't think anything he wrote applied to me, I found his writing good for a laugh.
UPCOMING: We are approaching February and I've already gotten my first seed catalog. This means that most of the books I'll be checking out for the next few months will be about gardening and home improvement. My husband got me a sewing machine for Christmas, so there will be a lot of sewing books in my stack, as well. If I do reviews of any of those books, I will probably post them on my personal blog which is more about my home life. Of course, I'll put up links to those posts here just in case anyone is interested.
2 comments:
I really love podcasts! I like Books on the Nightstand, Enthusiasticast, and the Bookrageous podcast especially. I do a podcast of my own called Green Reads where I talk (with my boyfriend) about books that deal with the environment. You can download it on iTunes if you're interested.
Ash, I couldn't get into Enthusiasticast. I tried several episodes but they were all about books that I would never read. Bookrageous sounds familiar; not sure why it isn't on my playlist. I'll be sure to search the Zune Marketplace for your show!
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