bass rape is something that cannot at the be dine feed scientifically and it's a social issue and deserves a social definition. so your objection is you're qualifying somebody who has been raped -- you're asking whether somebody has been legitimately raped in a social context as opposed to being a purely scientific question and that's it. >> guest: well, greg, i think you're getting a little finer than i -- i didn't really follow all your reasoning. my point was, i was connecting the idea of stress with the stress that rape brings. now, of course, there are kinds of rapes they call statutory that are not stressful. they may be consensual. i always try to leave that out. again fire like we're kind of beating a dead horse here a little bit, john. the real question is, does that life -- does the person that is conceived in rape have the same right to life? and that a tough ethical

question. this is a program writ was a gotcha. i'm going to try to get you to say something, and i slipped in putting that word. my would have been better just to say rape instead of trying to define it more precisely. >> host: former congressman todd akin talks about is in hit back "firing back". appreciate you joining us this morning. >> guest: thank you very much and best wishes to all your great listeners. >> this is booktv on c-span2, television for serious readers. here's our primetime lineup for tonight. at 7:00 p.m. eastern, norman pinkingstein discusses the israel-gaza conflict, and at 8:45, the detail of the life of john d. neglect be honest day. former counsel to president nixon, john dean discusses watergate with bob woodward at 10:00 p.m. eastern in our primetime programming continues with adele leavine, who recalls her time as a physical therapist

at walter reed army medical center. that all happens tonight on c-span2's booktv. >> what are you currently reading? >> robert wrighton wright now, about devil's game and writes about -- a great historian about our fallacy and our foreign policy, you know, and how we go in and how we precipitate hatred mr. flood the islamist that exist and why it's partially our fault, which nobody wants to hear about that but that is part of the trouble, but very interesting book. >> what are you reading this summer? tell us what is on your summer reading list. tweet us, post it to our facebook page, or send us an e-mail. >> here's a look at some book

that are being published this week. frank minuter report once gun technology and argues antigun lobbyists are deterring the implement addition of innovation in the future of the gun. british investigative reporter nick davies lays out his findings on the news of the phone scandal, on hack attack, the inside story of how the truth caught up with rupertmer dock. and -- rupert murdoch in the modern america anywhere, sean mcfait who worked for a security service in africa privates a look at the inside world of military contractors and how they're becoming a greater part of the u.s. military. a former china account for the sunday telegraph examines the social landscape of china's remote regions in "the emperor

far away: travels at the edge of china." and in "blood aces" dog swanson of the dallas morning news recounts how benny binion helped shape las vegas. watch nor author tuesday -- authors in the near future on booktv and booktv.org. >> booktv is on location at the number public library in mid-town man dnr man hat than. an thornton is here. >> i'm the director of the research libraries. >> what does that mean? >> there are four research libraries, there's this one in mid-town manhattan, the center for research in black culture in harlem, the library for the preferring arts at lincoln center, and the business library at 34 not stream and maddison avenue. >> host: what do you do as

directors. >> collections, fellowships, reference and research and preservation. >> going to have ann thornton show us some of the collections in some of the research library pair fer naila. where are we right now? >> we're in the magnificent rose main reading room of the new york public library. this is really he heart and soul of the library. you see here lots of users who are taking advantage of the library's resources, not only our physical resources, our books and materials, but also access to technology which is incredibly important. >> and even though his room is quiet and sedate, you look out the window, you can see the entire city of new york. >> absolutely. that's right. and when the library was founded in 1911, of course there weren't these tall buildings outside the reading room. instead all you could see was sky. so, it's really a place where the city has really groin around the library. >> why called the rose reading

room? >> the rose family named this reading room in honor of their children when it was renovated in 1998. and during that renovation, every square inch of the surfaces in this room were touched by a crafts person. so it's really been restored to its original splendor. >> do you know about the paintings on the top. >> these-under murals that we had to actually re-create. they were in such a bat state of disrepair before the renovation, and these were created in a studio on campus and then installed here. they're not painted michelangelo style. >> how much of the library's collection of artifacts are available for people to see? >> all of them. our collections are more than 51 million items, and we have all kinds of things from books to manuscripts and archival material, of photographs-prisons, menus-maps,

all kinds of materials. >> one of those valuable items is this. what are we looking at here? >> this is a gutenberg bible volume. we have a gutenberg bible in our collection. many great research lie brothers around the world do. the significance of this gutenberg bible, is that this bible was the first one to be brought to the united states in the mid-19th century, so, it's remarkable in that way. >> and it's on display for anyone who is walking by to see it? >> absolutely. so, the technology here, of course, is -- what is remarkable about this, print's removable type in 1455. >> all week, watch booktv in primetime. monday at 8:30 p.m. eastern and tuesday through friday at 8:00. booktv features a wide range of topics including foreign policy, law and legal