and family members who will comk from the war and i think that's what your book is about. ..

>> >>. >> what do you think about politicians that think we should return to water boarding? some of that is the idea that isis and the other groups doesn't chop off the heads and we tie our hands with our ability to respond if we don't resort to these tactics soul even with the

presidential campaign even a good portion of the public. >> if we talk about donald trump that has been played over and over again, this initiative matter of having the year-old son who comes off from schoolith the bad grade or report of not behaving vincennes' says it doesn't matter because everybody was worse over they we're doing far worse i was just talking i would not say that is fine as long as you are not as bad as they are then continue on. again i don't care i care

about the way you are representing yourself in and interacting with people and that is all that matters is what other organizations are doing as long as we are not them that falls so short foot of the nation in the country that i that i grew up in. watching the first goal for a is the thousands of the iraqis surrendering -- rendering that they would be

treated better then to be treated by their own units with the idea that you bring them to safety that if you capture or surrender rebate imprison you you will be treated humanely in we will take care of you've you want to cooperate, that is fine whether they do or not that doesn't matter with the discussion of torture. >> that resonates with me a lot and what is frustrating for my perspective is high-level military leaders have always been opposed even during the bush administration there was an insurgency with in the military to stop this and those who haven't had interrogation experience or

leaders within the military in we work with a group of retired generals and the message has not gone now carry enough in my hope is that as the conversation continues among the american people we will realize it's a your postcard transplant now your wife is virucide so now what is next in terms of your conversation and narrative of torture? >> i am absolutely a torturer and someone that still feels obligated to talk about it. try and the heart transplant recipients we think short-term so i do still feel obligated the league is

next on friday. to see my wife tonight when i drive home. glows are things that i think i need to focus on that recognizes book does not end the chapter which doesn't allow me to say i was a torture i have no clothes that and have moved on but the important part to be seen as somebody who is a torturer and was able to do these things in the past and if i'm not careful in the future are starving myself with the right people that i am capable to follow into these things again that is similar for the nation in asia into think we did this now we are okay because we have john brennan saying my agents to allow water board that we cannot walk away suggesting it is not who we are any more. it happened as a country as a nation and we need to

address that that we're quite frank the able to do that again. >> host: thanks for talking with me. >> guest: thanks for the opportunity ha. >> host: senator derbent growing up in illinois what sparked your interest in reading? >> guest: my mother she discover the library and took me there their role was taken only checkout as many books as i could carry so i would take a stack of books and race through them and then get a chance to go back to the east st. louis public library was a real adventure. probably that would wet my appetite. >> host: what types of

books to gravitate? >> guest: kids books i got into the doctor doolittle series which back in my youth nobody was reading nobody ever heard of it and tell the movie came out but most people discovered he was and what it was about i think it was a british set of books but for some reason i got a kick out of the talking animals. jindal hardy boys and all those that followed that it was part of who we were. my mom was an immigrant come eighth grade education she taught herself everything under the sun and cooking, shorthand, reading and that probably inspired me. she was born lithuanian and brought here at the age of two and the population came from germany to baltimore

and in chicago and st. louis she would have been part of that with the huge lithuanian population. in that was a three mitt -- thriving part of east st. louis and what they could work at to become a switchboard operator but she was my original teacher. >> what types of books to gravitate towards? >> mostly nonfiction i don't force myself but i tried to discipline every third or fourth book to read something fiction it is good for me if you think of

politicians and is read history but i have to get into it they have courses on line it doesn't cost anything so i decided i would take a college course so what do you think i took? in that would have been my a second choice but the first was poetry i never had up poetry course and at the university of pennsylvania to talk this online so i got to monitor his class's in was a great experience i can get all the poetry on line and all this emily dickinson and walt whitman i made the mistake of telling one of

the people at the daily herald to put it in the paper then with all things considered to take up poetry course i thought i could talk a few minutes about that. we have never seen or met this man. so there is a quiz for you. but i always try to use my reading to a space and a little bit into fiction work we ask senators all the light we cannot see are they

sharing it i don't know about the others but i just heard about it i thought it was up fascinating premise there was a girl that was surviving the bombing raids in france and what happened to her and i recommend it to others we often trade books that i cannot remember space who recommended it but i thought it was wonderful. >> host: what is another book to have recommended to senator collins? >> one novel that was very well written and then to do this exchange back and forth. with a story about a wailing

ship out of nantucket that was sunk by a whale in the pacific in it is the story behind the story in that is a revolutionary war book by bob dash end in terms of what i am reading i and the huge fianna of timothy egan from "the new york times" and one heck of an author. in the south pacific in

during the civil war then to go to montana he died. it is morbid but the premise of the book. that tells a story leading up to that. and that image of the dust bowl leading to the migration in the hard times but that was an incredible scene that they were just engulfed with dirt and dust blowing through there and accumulating it became a challenge we be quitting and leave. >> day whether a never read books by your colleagues.

>> i also read her harry reid and claremont paschal -- claire the castle. >> what about the dick durbin? >> i don't know if there would ever be one? >> i have 60 chapters sitting in my desk is just dories i have accumulated over the course of my time i am not sure there is the book. there is a lots of writing but someday i may entice an editor. >> tell us about one chapter >> it is a continuing project i was with obama on the campaign trail in a said you carry anything in your pocket every day? he should be a little pendant like us a tiny little buddha and said they

take it with me everywhere. i said i will ask all these people what did you carry? and started to collect that so that is a story of each senator and what they like to carry in their pockets. is that or the of the book? i don't know but it caught my attention. politician cannot write about your life without reflecting on what brought uri - - you hear my mother r.i. father who died from lung cancer when i was in high school. and defer senator worked for who introduced me to paul simon you hired me out of law school to work to the lieutenant governor's office. how i got in the battle to take smoking off of their planes. my father. and what it was like to pass the bill in the house.

i am not that good at it. but i don't profess to have any great expertise is in justin stories are the cartoons. >> the time is scarce in do have airplane time i have done that every week so there is time. a book is a great way to pass the time.

and stick with it to the yen's it ended just wasn't my style. that tangible feel of the paper book if i carry that around in my briefcase i will finish it because i think how long you going to carry this that is a great way city next of passenger you don't want to sit to the head of the nra from colorado it is of legitimate way to say don't bother me. [laughter] >> host: when is the last time? >> that is a casualty of the port town that is now struggling to survive but it meant a lot to me. it took a transition of 80,000 people at its peak in

then went through racial crisis were there were african-americans in then to a suburb now it is a city probably 95 percent african-american deduce they have a great mayor who is impressive i have my fingers crossed she will turn this city in the right direction with the population of 25,000. no industry other than a casino riverboat. what about popular books like that harry potter season -- a series? to they attract your attention. >> usually not. i guess i read those but i

don't get caught up in to that is so much that i do get fixed of certain authors in irish author has written a series of books about a family and i get the biggest kick at of reading his books in day talk about ireland in the 20th century and get the biggest kick to read that and the woman is the special case to write several memoirs of growing up in south africa in the southern part. cocktail's under the tree of forgetfulness.

to come from the most dysfunctional family in the political structure and that came through all of the stories. >> are their books that helped you? >> sometimes we gravitate towards those but there is a new biography of brandeis said although enough about him this is a university press book so i will do that and that helps. there is another one that we just ordered i'm trying to get myself to a frame of mind.

>> host: day read books you disagree with? >> usually don't get through them i get a agree and i stop. [laughter] if i can finish a book even if i try a second or third time maybe it was not meant to be. that is okay. at of mind to try to pass i learned something even if i stop at 150 pages. >> host: you mentioned that you ordered a book where you get them? >> campus on but that is very convenient and my favorite story on amazon was waking up at 5:00 in the morning thinking 1/2 to order books they said you want same day delivery on a sunday in chicago? and they did deliver it by 230 so it is pretty convenient but having said that i a call at of my way

to overpay for books for neighborhood bookstores i would worked my way through college at a bookstore here in washington i've never rise the inventory id where everything was by publisher i got a big kick out of bed and that got me started on this crazy list of books i have more than they should but i think about amazon i also think i don't want to lose the neighborhood bookstores so on broadway on the corner of my a condo is a book celeb make a point to go get christmas books but i figure i have to keep them in business they have such a good inventory so i do have a soft spot with a neighborhood bookstore. >> host: do they know who you are? >> made to it is curious if

you told me we have 30 minutes ladylike to go to a bookstore great. hour-and-a-half great. if it is good just give me the time i will amuse myself for however long you want me to stay there if it is a really good bookstore. >> are there any books you recommend to colleagues or staff? >> there is a book that i read of the comanche indians. with it is all stereotypical so so have you read empire of the summer ruth? i have never heard of it. it is all about texas and oklahoma were the comanche's dominated. he loves it then he gives it as a gift to ever republican

senator next christmas. that turned out to be popular there is a book called the heart of everything that is that is the story of the sioux nation going to defer part of the united states i recommended that to those from minnesota. >> host: what about eleanor way or illinois politics is there a bookie would recommend? >> there are a lot but i was just recommending the city of the century i get the biggest kick out of this book 18th-century history of chicago telly get from the early days of settlement through the colombian exposition people would call that the white city that

takes place at the same era in 1893. but that is such an eye opener in terms of creating a city. it is a small town in the groove geometrically by the end of the 19th century. so i would start there is a good book and what paul simon wrote it was prolific. saying he has written more books than ronald reagan has read. in the law on the course of the campaign that is a prolific writer and journalist.

>> what about the u.s. senate? >> the master of the senate the history of the body nothing else matches up. >> in this is the old hideaway office. i have his office in this is part of his legacy he would walk to read night the senator that i worked for as a kid the cerebral progressive that lbj hated in decided that he loved that nobody else wanted. now working late one night in the senate offices and

then steps lbj in in closes the door a and leads. but he wanted that office. but in his time he laid claim to a lot of real estate at the capitol. >> any involvement with u.s. libraries around the country? >> it is fun working with them to be in the next library of congress to be in baltimore and was down in the reason for that probably was the african-american ince gravitated to the jobs and the railroads it turned

out to be a pretty common in musician. in there is the great story running into some opposition >> it to say one more thing in like most other skills that if you read stephen king because the front end of the book that is hilarious almost as funny as another writer that i read all the time. the life and times of the of whiz bang kid growing up ben des moines iowa. been interested in science

fiction in then to do that well ben haddad quirky way so he writes a book called kerry and it doesn't do very well that they call him to say we decided to put that into paperback you will get a $10,000 audience. and how to be a writer and how to get it done. and then there are seven sites how to write every day.