I don’t have full-strength cable at home, just a diluted el cheapo version that costs about $10.00 a month. I get good reception of the basic local channels, which I want, plus some junky shopping channels, that I block out. I read alot and watch videos so I really don’t need more TV channels to tempt me.

Yesterday, while pulling an all-nighter with my successfully post-operative parental unit at the hospital, I encountered Book TV, a C-Span 2 channel that broadcasts nonfiction book authors giving talks about their works. Thought it was pretty interesting stuff, well, interesting to me, anyway. Tom Wolfe was talking about trophy wives and corporate culture at Enron and Silicon Valley and so forth. Apparently there is a related show called “Booknotes” that has been on C-SPAN since 1989. Who knew?

Booknotes offers hundreds of streaming video interviews of authors. Click for link to Erik Larsen’s 2003 interview about The Devil in the White City.

I plan to take a closer look at Booknotes and the online version of Book TV. I am going to check out Book TV again, too, the next time I have “real” cable access.

The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski - Culture, History

Civilization by Sir Kenneth Clark – Art, History

Michael Moore, documentary maker of Sicko, Bowling for Columbine, etc

Ken Burns, documentary maker of The Civil War, Jazz, etc

Jared Diamond‘s Guns, Germs, and Steel – Anthropology

Tupperware! – History, Business

Jesus Camp – Culture, Religion

Slavery and the Making of America – Culture, History

Who Killed the Electric Car? – Business, Environmental

Occupation, Dreamland – Culture, Military

Maxed Out - Culture, Business

Super Size Me – Culture, Health

Wal*Mart: The High Cost of Low Price – Culture, Business