Books on the Radio

Some of the best books coverage these days is being done on the radio. National Public Radio is consistently interesting, everything from cookbooks to the classics. Best of all they have a books channel on their web page, so it's easy to check in on what they're doing if you miss it on the air.

I also check in on The Bob Edwards Show, which is on XM Radio. Last night I heard him interview Arthur Brooks, an academic who studies charitable giving. Brooks found that conservatives really do give more than liberals, but not because of their political leanings per se. Rather, people who are skeptical of government tend to donate more to charity. It's hard to do justice to his nuanced arguments, but his book is called Who Really Cares: America's Charity Divide: Who Gives, Who Doesn't, and Why It Matters, and you can excerpt here.

Another radio show with great books coverage is Tom Ashbrook's On Point from WBUR. I hear this on XM, too, but anyone can listen to it for free on the Web or via Podcast. (The show's archives are here.) He interviews everyone from zany entertainment doyenne Amy Sedaris to postfeminist provocateur Camille Paglia. (That Paglia interview is super good.) He also does lots of politics and current events, with authors like Tom Ricks (Fiasco) and Lawrence Wright (The Looming Tower).