Book Shelves

It’s all in the book shelves
By Jim Coogan
Watching some of television’s prominent news and entertainment personalities practicing social distancing, it is interesting to see how they look at home. As they broadcast from remote locations, their self-chosen settings can tell a lot about them – perhaps more than they would like. Clearly, in this pandemic, it’s a challenge to maintain glamour in the absence of make-up people and hair stylists. A lot of the normally attractive teleprompter readers now just look like anyone else you could be waking up next to in the morning. That sense of the ordinary can be seen in CNN’s Chris Cuomo isolated in his basement, wearing a sweat shirt, or when looking in on Lady Gaga as she sings a fund-raising song from her kitchen. I noticed she has the same toaster oven that I have.
NPR commentator Amy Walter has a book collection behind her befitting her status as a news analyst. I could see No Ordinary Time, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and David Herbert’s biography of Abraham Lincoln. Her Monday night counterpart, Tamara Keith, chooses not to have any books displayed. Instead she has certificates of achievement and posters behind her. Lisa Desjardins broadcasts from a stark living room – no pictures on the wall, no books, and she is seated before a fireplace that looks as if it has never been lit. There’s a weird lamp behind her. White House beat reporter Yamiche Alcindor has Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, prominently displayed face out on a shelf above her. Main NPR news anchor Judy Woodruff talks to us in front of an impressive rack of books, including Jon Meacham’s Destiny and Power and Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush look Presidential by James Moore.
Watching a clip featuring John Harwood, CNN’s Whitehouse Correspondent, as he was seated in front of his bookshelf. I could read titles like Michael Kranish’s Trump Revealed and It’s a Long Story: My Life, by Willie Nelson. The at-home settings of political candidates can tell a lot about what they value by what is or isn’t on the shelves. In a video conference from home, Bernie Sanders had no books on display but two nice pictures of Vermont on the walls behind him. In his taped campaign messages, Joe Biden has a lot of books in his study. Most of them like, The Making of the President 1960 by Ted White, were written before 1980. I think John Maroney of NECN hands down has the best living room.
I’ll admit that it is rare that I switch over to Fox News. I did see where Lara Logan has Michael Waltz’s Warrior Diplomat on her shelf. I would expect the other Fox personalities would have titles like The Conscience of a Conservative, by Barry Goldwater, Pat Buchanan’s Right From the Beginning, Stealing America, by Dinish D’Souza, and books by other conservative authors like Mark Steyn, Michelle Malkin, and Ann Coulter. There would be a lot of American flags in the background, and perhaps a framed picture of Donald Trump on the wall. I’m guessing Sean Hannity would have Ted White and Blue, by Ted Nugent in his collection.
Now you might wonder how I would showcase myself should I ever do a television interview from my home. First of all, it wouldn’t be shot in my office. That would give truth to what my wife has always said about me. I’d set up a book case behind my easy chair in the living room with a picture of a clipper ship on the wall. On the shelves you would see pictures of my dogs, a copy of Mayflower, by Nathanial Philbrick, My Turn at Bat, by Ted Williams, and Drive: The Story of My life, by Larry Bird. I’d include a complete set of Robert B. Parker novels, and a bunch of my own books that I’ve written – all face out. And I’d shave.