>> we are so excited to be hosting pamela for her book. she will be speaking before i turn it over to them i have a couple of housekeeping things. please take this moment to turn off or silence your cell phones and also note we are grateful to have c-span here for booktv.

please be aware you may be on camera and passing around a microphone during the q-and-a. we have flyers available at the >> >> then your times best selling author and other people we have married name the best book of the year for life of fiction and nonfiction most recently she and her husband zero ben day bookstore she will be

speaking with the new yorkme times book review editor also the host of a weekly podcast inside "the new yorkod times" book review. [inaudible] she is also of testified leatherwork and congressr new bk heard new book is a singular account of her life is a journal that records every book she has ever read. her fantasies and hopes and dreams and ideas her life in turn influences the books

she chooses into rights lf said half the world and have been books she writes about e the bumpy road of maturity to captivate all readers it is a joyful and poignant reflection. pamela will be reading from the book and amylum will join her with conversation so please 22 welcome to a p the stage. [applause] >> thanks for being here will not read for very long. so i'd rather have a conversation and hear from

you but i will read from a chapter that is largely about working in a bookstore i grew up feeling very a book derived they were precious commodity schiedam i had handed down to its many books about trucks whenever i asked my mother her standard response was getting from the library i i will read from a chapterill read about my desire for more books per girl per standard response was getting from the library. it was actually the tells first library it long ceased to serve in that capacity that wish just around the corner that was directly across the street.

while the library was a public institution that dealt private to me the children's library shelf i knew in my friends awaited when they would hang a at the end of the front row and the intellect of from the high shelf of would never have to be told to be quietin tr for grow wanted to crawl into the stacks to smell the paper i would put my fingersge through the card catalog drawers. fli i could be the first girl to master the dewey decimal system i want to know where every book stood there was some type of officially sanctioned area then i mustered the courage after it moved to town. sorry there are no jobs available for children. and said he would not have

to pay me but that is okayy but thank you. what was the that put the children's librarian of my candidacy? did she question my intention did she not see i was a book person that i would never leave the of book face down with the spine like other kids my age? this library is not yours is how i heard it. every once in awhile i would inquire again other times going to the person at the checkout these request were debunked in each time i felt sorry for asking for:so i will skip a little bit then

finally i was offered the job of major themes in his school.en i was a finally are they driver's license 28 minutes from my house in the shopping center there was the be dalton bookstore chain and they hired me. the only high schooler who worked a monumentalwa achievement even if you consider there wasn't much competition policy and other employees were actual grown-ups. some could have been working in the produce section of a short sweaty man in his mid-30s was cleaning hopefully with his mind a brimming with knowledge the hard way he had informed

opinions but i was determined to learn i knew exactly to read and what i would read next reflect the path forward here i could keep my passions i just have to pay attention so i quickly noticed whenever a broker bought out somebody from management only seniorly employees knew how to build and maintain their regular sales clerks could not touch them.e displa so they would singing -- signal the event of the day. over there the imposing tower which everybody had to have our imaginary that the universe would make itselfke known i envy those people who took those hard covers

off with a credit card somewhere down the main aisle that these must be important. what do you think you're doing? what is this? he said you don't want to know. i put it down hubbard in curiosity nervous to go on year that began. what is this i inquired? phyllis campbell why is he so important? what is this? i did this book it to be a movie? what does that mean? if authors seem to have reputations one dominated an entire shelf and master of criminal justice.

even the crime itself into 1989 when the satanic verses we were swept up in a mission of global importance the only time i've heard every rand prior to this assembly would graffiti the ayatollah on the building every to rebook get it i would say that there is danger but spelldown by photographs of him the topic of cash register buttons to have that campaign of darkness and of the excitement. cj my co-workers and i reported for duty to get the instructions frome books headquarters his book was to be next to the cash register

were behind the register for the back of the store the employees did not feel safe people were bombing bookstores. diffe those who did not know the difference between iran or iraq would flock to the store. they would come up to theth store that they wanted to buy the book and somebody will ask if we stop at you would only answer on a casese by case basis. what is it about? nobody knows. [laughter] [applause] >> i love that. >> i can tell you those cardboard things and i

alerting so many things. >> should have started then. >> so i want to talk first about your childhood ande coming into your life as a reader and thinking about how you described at the end of that chapter of the privacy of reading and how it is totally separate from anybody else your school, friends, the rest of the world, so is that how you thought of reading? error is that something you actively keep track of in

your life?. >> is that what drew you to reading? to be close behind the curtain?. >> yes. i did not have the childhood that was dreary horror challenging i was relatively privileged but i felt like a loner and i did not fit in i had seven brothers growing up i felt like being a girl was a distinct disadvantage. i did not feel discriminated against as a woman or a girl but books were a way to seek out company and i felt that as a child to be associated with the people around me.

fl like with the book you could adopt your own world and then figure out who you were. so este's each in your life those traditional stories as part of the social order and i was also incredibly shy.hrougc and then the other book was biographies at that time because i felt for me that if i looked at what abigail adams or dolly madison did it wasn't to be the first lady but if they did thingsst they got them to the place of achievement which to me was a book so i explored

their lives so those two threads i used reading as a way to try on a different life. >> to hear you say that it is like the young -- the inverse of the impostor syndrome to feel that you are good enough to do and then find out you are a fake i have that experience that i am complete leave here inside this book and it is seamless acceptance that the book has no choice but to let me in. t >> but for me it was tryingik to try on a different type of life.

>> q said the ultimate goal was to be in a book were there other slightly more concrete?. >> i am fully aware there was delusional thinking but to me that stems of the of surface makes me appear productive so it gives me that list of things to do every day was like "groundhog day." n i'm just acting out the same thing over again. is right across this off i have done that i can do whatever i want the rest of my life not realizing there rigby a new list so every day i wake up to operate under that same delusional thinking about one day i

would just be finished and i could watch movies the rest of the day and be free. but with this book by human motivation is like the 19th century to be on top of it for a long time read 20th-century fiction i felt that wasn't done with it yet but i felt if i could justnd get up and to be done through that that i can start reading mid century fiction. so i felt it was by that desire to have the body of b knowledge..

they felt that there was certain types of information that you needed to know and to be suspicious the ignorant. >> do you have the opposite door the list of and read books they must in just?. >>. >> and then go together people's apartments. but i am not nearly as organized..

and then it was important to be surrounded and also be surrounded by those of you have not yet to read. that maybe 75 percent of the books but in my bedroom i have to bookshelves then this is how they all come out into the house.

but the rate at which you buy a book's the. >> delight to be surroundedy. by the possibility and this is very mood based with that long process but what i do do i. m. a slow reader. that is my greatest feeling in life. i so it is like what i want to read next. and then i will narrow down.

>> so you have to know about hundreds of books today. >> i do feel terrible but i am lucky to have an amazing staff this day certain amount of reading and then there is up podcast so i'm good with the reader rounded this point i guard my reading time very selfishly it is just a personal i

could never be a book editor. so with me even though it is my job is my pleasure. >> one of the things the you mentioned that you talk j about breast feeding and reading i could never figure out how to do that properly i could not figure it out. [laughter] that is because i refuse to receive anythingd electronically.

>> then i would open that up and to make that work. >> so can you talk about the notations?. >> at at has evolved over time. i was 17 years old and i was in the armpit of france. sarah really is it a little bit of nowhere as a place of french commerce.

and then looked at them and i did not keep track but not until i was criticized that i was just writing these things down. and then i never thought of that this way. so when you put numbers so i

remember when i was unemployed in northern thailand after college i basically had no friends and i did not have a telephone inc so they act like they were prt short tory easy books. so when i was 34 that is a mixed blessing. and i have other annotations for when i didn't finish something like interview with a vampire i wanted to like that book but i really, really did not.

and when i don't finish reading something. >> is there a certain threshold? like 75 pages. but sometimes i pick up the book and tour the first time. asked w in what book should i read next? and they were humorous. biked the stakes were higher. like real emotional engagement.

can read the portland oregon ultimately that did not make the cut and on the back of the cover. so then i thought okay but i wasn't going on my own heated that point. so i will go back to a. citizen that get to level need. and so to engage with

something and i ended up leading ben bradlee of men more -- memoir and from 1 million boys like the newspaper. >> what do your kids think about? to want to vote to make an entry? what are you even talking about? because they know how selfish three k are about our raid in -- our w reading.still be because even after they are independent readers and then

that buys more reading time.her and then they are forced to read. so then they are bought into the process to give thatat authority. >> so given the book there is a chapter you are reading children's literature as an adult and having children with picture books early chapter books is thrilling and so much fun at this

point is a one-year-old as part of a of a larger community. >> and never wanted to be part of say but club of i want to read what i want to read. but then i had a third race and not to be part of a book club what they wanted me to read. enjoy

and with that committed ahe and conversation and. and has anybody read this? and then to have that connection and conversation isr what they think. and then my first job edi because children's books are short and easy. that line lion which in the wardrobe those are in the publishing industry everyone

in their legs childrens'ke books but they take them seriously in then we find that incredibly ignorant how disparaging people are of kids' book because that is when we become readers when we learn to love books and we get to goosebumps there is a lot of crap the children's books but they have to be good to poland the child and that we were

just forced aside to run around the they have to be good and plot driven so the stakes are so high. so when they fall in love or when they are isolated in the cafeteria so those emotions are so powerful. that you can go back and actually remember your feelings.

and the thing aboutt jellyfish that there is a scene in the book that is really harsh in a way that rings true that it is a big deal that they would pin someone down and then to say something but of course, imey do. but to find that terrible motion the nobody likes me feeling. i am a believer of books for kids.

>> you in charge of your children read?. >> note. i lost those powers early autumn. this is a mixed blessing but i gotta lot of books for free and i am talking about thousands of dollars. >> a lot of those books are for them pro and then to read everyone. and then to be from the far corners and then to go with

exdifferent readers for crow so i admire her. so my son is an extremely voracious reader and i am not. to read everything from nonfiction i did get him to read the princess bride. >> we have two more minutes. but always one to rescue. >>.

>> is there a question you should not ask?. >> for this moment of my high school career their parts of my adolescence i did not include in my book.e and another editor and the author. and that is not in the book. and my mom is still alive.

lead did include them. the one presented not making it into the book as part of the application to college. including the works of poetry. [laughter] please put of your hands. >> this is one of the questions we go to the island what is the one the you take?. >> the longest.

[laughter] added is a terrible thing because there are a lot of good books and then it is still referenced in their. and then it was like reading "moby dick" by myself. and then just to be reattached to read "moby dick"? and then the struggle so that i would

actually have the time. >> i have not thought aboutbo that about the defining characteristic. it is very strategic in that way. >> so you talk about the issue that you don't use that in the electronic reader so other is a well-known couple.le i for sitting in bed and one has a physical book as they

accidently become a writer with a one-person operation i so how do you manage? city read 70 books per year give or take? and every day every three or four pro and beholding is full of books workr and i work from my home that is all that i do. >> i don't actually have a tv. so you're on the right path i guess. and then to dedicate myself

and them with those ideological reasons the im on the screen all day long so i have a break from thatt i but i do think it is hard because there are so many distractions and i would leave my phone on the fifth floor said you want to check your e-mail you have five floors. so with that incentive to keep those distractions. >> do your kids leave you alone?. >> we read together side-by-side.

tv dinners. [laughter] >> i never heard anybody describe the book titles so how do you fight youro audience? and then to think they are kind of mundane. so when you reach the audience? i guess i'm not sure how to say that perotfor what are you looking for?.

>> honestly it was to write a book that sells pretty lobar but britain previously not a fiction book but with those that were journalistic in their intention for those cover argued that as a reading experience that may have eliminated an issue. someone told someone told me they read those previous books with a master of consumer culture i would

just like to have a book that is a pleasure read but ultimately led to what was going on in the road when i was writing the book but if you want to read something that is what i want to i hope that is what the readers get from the book. >> the first few books they were a lot of hard work with reporting and research and interviews with this book it was a very different exercise because i was writing about myself i did not have to interview or report and a thought that would make it easy but it didn't speak as first volume half to remember that where

the book of books comes from to have these titles to access loveless feeling and thinking of a given moment but to capture that in the riding a friend of mine once said about a memoir that you have to do the pictures of ain certain points in your life as you were then how he thought than no matter how now t pitiful or nagy forti ridiculous you come across budget in order to recreate that experience and be honest you cannot be biased so that is hard to do.o. it could be the smallest thing like i really did feel very self-conscious as a child everyone knew the paris something i had done wrong there is one terrible

moment in elementary school in the schoolyard somebodyho ran up and said the flood is over and ran away. it took years before i knew that meant my pants were too short. i had a hand me gowns so i lived for a year with the knowledge the flood is over i don't know what that means in they are laughing about it but everybody else knows.ybol so there is a reference in the book that i thought dilute normal but i was worried that my pants would look the wrong way or eliciting at the wrong table. so they were childish but

true emotions and that was not easy. >> what is your one favorite book? one that stands out?. >> batted impossible. you cannot ask that question. not fair perot i usually go back to their russian classic thiamine 19th century literature person. >> i think have a good question this is for both of the authors today what are you reading right now? [laughter] >> i just started the galley

of a new book called mrs. fletcher coming out in august. >> it is a hard question for me we have a segment every week of what we are readingso wa ; eggs and i talk about thateele because then there is intense pressure what are you reading? so makes this all look bad if you read the same book i would say right now i am chapter 28 of book for. so i would hope but be done with the book but i am not so i am still reading the

ben bradlee them more -- more so he just finished talking about the "pentagon papers" that is currently in development of a movie so the plan is to make about the washington post and "the new york times" is that happy about that because we won the pulitzer prize. so he goes by the blow by blow of that.t because we did have that story first. of the live not responsible for that. i am going to australia in a few weeks for festival and interviewing an australian author so i will read her book several lot of background reading.

>> now we all have recommendations. [applause]

. >> this era of of peak victories of the civil-rights movement starts at the moment when jim crow discrimination in huge flight is up to the northern cities so you have the fair housing act which is the high water mark so essentially you get to a society that gives the past segregation as a social project through other municipal decisions through dozens of court decisions

and makes that almost impossible for school district voluntarily with the abandonment of fair housing legislation often. so what facilitates all of this if we have people living near each other so in his place they will be crawling and controlling and a big thing that i have come to believe in writing this book is that actually it should be a priority have desegregation explicitly in those terms.

she had a great sense of humor not just with a sense of humor but to make a point and also to put people at these you can imagine how i felt we did the president for the first time they were nervous and he would use humor to break the i.c.e. to make them comfortable even in beatings he where abuse stories to make a point maybe with a little humor to do that so we need to realize there is an important component. doe run out to buy a joke book but don't take yourself too seriously with a self-deprecating humor making himself of but the of the joke that allow people

to relax and if they were relaxed, i was not terrified working for this man there is such an era of the acceptance and appreciation and a sense of humor. not everything went perfect sometimes they went wrong and regardless of how you try to make things perfect sometimes they did not go as planned but he was gracious to roll with that to have the sense of humor into work with a man like that you're not afraid to put yourself out there were to take a chance because you know, he has your back and live life with a sense of humor. he had incredible respect of presidents before him or after him, also a great

respect for women also his mother was his most important person and his life even his relationship with mrs. reagan and mother teresa came into the office this little tiny woman who was a giant on the world stage and the first president to put to a woman on the supreme court he respected women and their role so that even wasn't an issue back fed but it was important to him to show respect so i always felt his respect toward me. and the mayor and the incredible patriotism having been behind the scenes it

was just when the cameras were rolling but to his core have times to hear the "star spangled banner" or the national anthem? we would have guessed come to the office they would play music for st.'' imagine if you are performing for the president what we probably perform? probably patriotic music he has heard the songs a thousand times but as the song would start he would tap his toe or sing along every word every now and then he would stand up at attention and respect to put his hand over his tartar some songs were so beautiful you could look over to see tears misting in his eyes.

he was patriotic to his core he felt the honor and privilege of having served at the highest level of his country and was proud of what he could represent and what america represented on the world stage. there was another woman in his life and that was lady liberty. which i thought was especially sweet this beautiful feminine lady who was the beacon of freedom for the world. . >> if you grow up looking at thousands of faces then you see if they are put on earth

just for you than you fall in love in the moment but for me trump was like that but the opposite when i saw him on the campaign trail who was unique and horrible terrible characteristic put on earth not for me to appreciate. because i really have been spending the last 10 hr 12 years without knowing it preparing for donald trump to happen. . .