i'm not sure. >> tell us about london the. >> london. well, still there. [laughter] the queen. >> [inaudible] >> i was. we were actually in wore chest shire -- wore worcestershire. i'm the only person you'll ever hear uttering the words i'm wintering in worcestershire this year. [laughter] we did. >> [inaudible] >> well, that was before. i'm going to brag on my wife. we went, she took me along a couple of years ago, she was getting -- she has more advanced degrees than a person with a lot of advanced degrees. [laughter]

she got a diploma from the london school of hygiene in tropical medicine. and she would -- this is a very intense three month course given at the most prestigious school for hygiene and tropical decide. and she would bring home her homework and sit next to me on the couch, and i, of course, would be reading the original -- [laughter] in the original greek. and i would make the mistake of looking over at her textbook which would be open to some color, two-page color spread on some revolting form of nemitode. [laughter] and then she'd say, what's for dinner? highly educated woman, my wife. and i do love her.

[laughter] and now all the world will know. [laughter] well -- >> i'm wondering -- [inaudible] adopted son of the palmetto state -- [inaudible] and it's whether -- [inaudible] >> yeah. but they haven't been bought, okay? [laughter] >> and there was a snaking line of -- [inaudible] who wanted you to sign your books, and there were little boys who clearly wanted to part -- [inaudible] you saw them coming up, and they'd been in line for so long. and the first little boy to him

he said, do you know who i am? i'm santa claus' deputy. [laughter] and the little boy jumped in his lap -- [laughter] the second little boy, young man, do you know who i am? the little boy could not wait to be out of there, he said i'm steve spurrier. [laughter] and the little boy jumped in his lap. so he made these two little boys very happy. so the question is, is honesty overrated? >> did the kids buy books? [laughter] i'll tell you a story of my first book tour in 1982. i was, it was at a very venerable bookstore in berkeley called black oak books which you'll be stunned to hear no longer exists, and it was, i was very excited by this because

this, you know, this was really one of the high churches of bookstores. and i arrived at, i was a little late. i arrived at 8:05 for an 8:00 reading, and there was not one human being there. there were a hundred chairs sort of pulled out and not one human being. and the very lovely lady manager was sort of saying, well, you know, traffic, terrible. [laughter] tuesday nights in berkeley. at around 8:00. you know? i said, i noticed on the way in from the airport, my taxi going 70 miles an hour. [laughter] and she said excuse me just one minute. so she disappears, and five minutes later there are four people in the seats sort of spread out, all of them hispanic. [laughter]

and she had gone into the stockroom -- [laughter] so my first reading, you know, from my book. and her suber subterfuge was so generous as to include having them all go to the cash register afterwards and buy it -- [laughter] and then this was her version of honesty. [laughter] thank you very much. [applause] >> you're watching book tv on c-span2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. booktv, television for serious readers. >> here's a look at some of the best selling nonfiction books according to national public radio. at the top of the list is "a fighting chance" by

massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. we covered the senator's talk in washington, d.c. earlier this month. look for it to air in the coming weeks on booktv. second is "everything i need to know i learned from a little golden book" by diane moldrow followed by michael lewis' "flash boys." booktv hosted a viewer call-in program with mr. lewis last month. that can be viewed anytime at booktv.org. the memoir, "can't we talk about something more pleasant?" is fourth, and number five is thomas piketty with "capital." he focuses on wealth and income inequality in europe and the united states since the 18th century. george saunders comes in sixth with "congratulations, by the way," and seventh on the list is mariano rivera's memoir, "the closer." good morning america anchor

robin roberts at eight with her memoir, "everybody's got something." and ninth is new yorker writer malcolm gladwell's "david and goliath." his talk on the book from the free library of philadelphia can be viewed on our web site. and wrapping up national public radio's bestsellers list at ten is "finding me: a decade of darkness, a life reclaimed," by ariel castro's kidnap victim, michele knight. for more information visit npr.org. >> booktv asked, what are you reading this summer? >> one of the books that i've just started that i'll be finishing over the next few weeks is "the big burn" by timothy egan. and he walks through some of the history of the creation of the national forests. it's always good to know your history when you're on a committee like energy and natural resources, and great stories of teddy roosevelt and the big fire of 1910.

and, hopefully, some lessons that we can apply even today. >> anything else on your? >> i'm also reading, looking forward to reading a book called "the second nuclear age" by paul bracket. it's a book that senator jack reed gave to me when i came to the senate, and and i've been putting it off for too long, and i've always had a real interest given new mexico's history and our role in the nuclear deterrent looking forward at this very-changing post-cold war land scape of regional nuclear powers. what does that mean for our policy. and so i'm looking forward to seeing what he has to say and, hopefully, he has some answers along the way as well. >> what are you reading this summer? tell us what's on your summer reading list. tweet us @booktv, post it to our facebook page or send us an e-mail, booktv to the c-span.org. booktv at crushes span.org. >> one of the stories that i,

that resonated with me was the moment when they're dithering about whether or not they need to inject seawater into unit one. and it's a matter of, the clock is ticking, and they're just about down to the wire. and yushida, i think that's how you pronounce his name, the plant superintendent -- who, in the end, would have to make the final call -- knows that it's desperate. they need to get water in there very quickly. and meanwhile, everybody wants a say. and the tepco officials and japanese government officials are all just kind of hemming and hawing, and yushida gets an order from one of his supervisors at tepco that the government hasn't signed off on this yet, he's got to hold off. well, he's already started! >> uh-huh. >> and so he basically calls one

of his staff people over and says, okay, i'm going to give an order, but ignore it. so he very loudly proclaims so everybody in tokyo can hear, we're going to, you know, halt the seawater injection when, in fact, they didn't. >> uh-huh. >> and to me, that was, to me that was a human element in that story in which in japan where ignoring the rules and kind of acting on your own is not rewarded, here was a moment where a guy knew that if he didn't act, things would go even worse than they were going. >> more about the tsunami and the resulting meltdown at the fukushima nuclear power plant tonight at ten eastern on "after words," part of booktv this weekend on c-span2. >> booktv continues now. philip k. howard argues that leadership in the u.s. has been replaced by stifling and outdated