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Watch TV, Learn about Books!

By Sarah Statz Cords

Okay, so it’s not as catchy as “Watch TV, Get Rich” (which is the tagline on the book my husband’s reading: Jim Cramer’s Mad Money), but it is a novel idea. And yes, you may think I’m talking about Oprah and her Book Club, like everyone else, but Oprah rarely picks any nonfiction books, which are the ones I really love. So I’m forced to look elsewhere.

And where I normally end up looking is The Daily Show and The Colbert Report; these two Comedy Central mock news shows (think The Onion in broadcast format) are THE hot shows for nonfiction author appearances. [For those of you on desk right now: please be aware that clicking on the program links in this post will take you to a page where audio immediately starts playing.] And I’m not the only person who’s watching, obviously: when the author Nassim Nicholas Taleb appeared recently to plug his book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, the number of holds on the title in my home library catalog tripled overnight.

So, even if you don’t get Comedy Central (which, as a cable-free household, I don’t), check out the web sites for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report; if you’ve got high-speed Internet you can watch the author interviews right there. If you don’t, or you’re more interested simply in a list of titles that have been featured, those have been compiled by dedicated fans for both programs.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Tips and Fun Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Watch TV, Learn about Books!”

  1. Sarah says:
    July 20, 2007 at 10:12 am

    Kate,
    We’re glad to have you here! I myself was shocked that they didn’t really have the booklists at the Daily Show/Colbert web sites (at least, I couldn’t find them there), so I was glad some intrepid souls were keeping track of those books for me! Any thoughts on what’s been your favorite book from those booklists so far? (I’m on the waiting list for “The Black Swan” and can’t WAIT to get a look at it!)

  2. Sarah says:
    July 19, 2007 at 9:18 am

    Cindy,
    That’s where I’m getting my news too. Well, that and the Onion, of course.

  3. Kate Trgovac says:
    July 18, 2007 at 11:45 pm

    Hi, Sarah .. thanks for the links to my Colbert & Daily Show lenses! My reading list pretty much comes straight from the show! Am so glad to have found your blog! Cheers .. Kate

  4. Cindy Orr says:
    July 18, 2007 at 8:18 pm

    Sarah, both my kids get most of their news from these two shows!

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