>> motherboard magazine brian merchant on the creation and development of the iphone in his book, the one device. he's interviewed by steve lower. >> part of the stories that the iphone was born as a software interaction paradigm was born behind his back. this crew of guys like a document in the book started basically experimenting this research. it was fun and wild stuff. they have a crazy rate that they were using to hack products together and create what would become the iphone. >> watch on sunday night on nine eastern on c-span2's book tv. >> now joining us on book tv is pamela, the editor of the new york times book review. you're out with your latest book, he saw she's a.

>> guest: your right to use the pronoun to treat him like a person because i kind of do. he's been a companion of cap since i was 17. was one journal i've written down the book of the name of every book i've read. >> host: how is he doing? >> is a really old-fashioned, it's not fancy journal. i bought it at a corner stationary store and i spilled coffee on himself you like is rotting from within. he is starting to split at the seams. the binding is starting to fray as soon as i started talking about him. >> as soon as i finish a book i still recorded. when i go away i just got back from a straley and i read five or six books when i was gone. the first thing i do when i get home.

i get in there and write down the name of every book. >> i was essentially a failed teenage -- so every young girl with writerly ambitions i recorded my thoughts in a journal, diary. the turned out that those entries were awful. a vehicle back and read them in the content which is about teenage angst with my parents or my friends in the writing was terrible. there is no sign of anne frank or judy bloomer and a joe march and there. they were awful to look back on. i also realize that all of the events i recorded were things i wanted to forget. when i saw the book i recorded what i wanted to remember which was what i was reading when all the other stuff is going on. >> so date, title, author. >> guest: there is no review. i get asked that a lot. what's interesting is that even though the entries are as brief

as they could be. just having that list and see what came before them what came after brings me back to that moment. i might not remember everything that's in the book, may remember the main character but i remember when i was nice reading it, i can see the cover and i remember buying it and how i felt when i read it. so in a way for me at leases become incredible diary for me that's more complete than another diary would've been. >> host: you have three children, have ever seen bob? >> guest: no. very few people haven't had access to bob. my husband has seen it but we keep his big list of books on his computer which he started once we met. >> so. >> host: my life as bob not all

books are excited, i was bored on some, hated on the road and i hated catcher in the right, why. >> guest: if you like i'm going to get i've already heard from many people who are upset for hating the fountainhead. i was a classic good girl, i did not like those protagonist to were rebelling against things. i was very much an obedient child in all of authority. at the same time i like to read about some characters were going off the rails a little bit. i found it a safe way to explore those themes. my problem with catcher the right is i felt like it was a spoiled brat. he was living this life in manhattan where i long to be, going to a private school and i thought he did not appreciate it. so i resented that. >> host: was your day job?

>> guest: i'm editor of the new york time book review and a oversee book coverage at the new york times which extends from reviews in the sunday book review tour daily critic to reporting on the industry, to profiles and features. we try to cover really not only what the latest is in books, but also to cover the way in which books intersect with the largest culture and the news in general. >> if someone gets the new york times separately can you read just one or do they come in a series? or if you pick up one is it like -- street. >> i think of the book review serves multiple purposes. ideally it's to tell you what is in the book had to give you a sense of the writing and to offer some kind of judgment. i also think a book review is an art form. there is a certain writing that

takes place in literary criticism that you would not get in the rest of the news report or even in feature of a book. criticism is an art form. so often my hope is people are not just looking at a book review to decide whether not to read the book but also appreciating that piece of writing in its own right. frankly people who read the book review so they don't have to read the book so they can know what's in it. >> like all book review editor's you write, i necessarily have to see books for something to be sifted through and sorted. [inaudible] how do you decide what you are going to review, and what is going to make the list? >> guest: that's the me this question to ask where everybody has all their galleys out there new books with such excitement and expectations.

what were doing at the new york times is performing the triage. nobody is time to read all of these books. what we see our role as editors and critics is to sift through everything and to find the books that are truly worth people's times and the ones we think people are looking at the new york times to have a season critic weigh in on. ultimately if that comes onto the book itself. you can send us a copy wrapped in a covered with candy kisses and although publicity in the world and there's much fanfare surrounding certain titles. in the end what were doing as editors is looking at the book itself and seeing if it's worth it. for my books i make my own book choices based on a gut instinct in the moment. for me it's about what i need intellectually, emotionally at that time.

whether it's a certain type of curiosity or information i'm after. or if it's more of a gut level emotional talk. the need for a sad story or the need to get deeply involved in something that feels apart from this time and place. i tend to make my own decisions as soon as we close the book and that i usually have us short stack of books i'm choosing from. and i think what a my in the mood for it. >> host: any books ever get reread? >> guest: very rarely. there's so many books out there that i want to re. probably 70% of the books on the shelves i have not read. there are books that are interesting to turn back to.

so much about a book isn't about what's in the book itself. that's what this book, my life with bob is about. it's about the intersections between the reader and the book. it's what the reader brings to the book. depending on where you are in your life you might bring something different to a story. you make it something different out of that story. the classic example that comes to mind -- you read the book any think this is so romantic, anna has to leave her husband, her true love and it's sad and tragic, but it's also she needed to do that. you understand terror. if you read it when you're newlywed perhaps he was think this is terrible, that's adultery and she is abandoning her child. her husband into anything wrong. if you read it later in life your little bit more understanding. if seen a number things happen in your life or the lives of your friends and are a bit more compassionate. and forgiving of her choices. >> this book is not getting reviewed.

i can do it without having a massive interest. my previous book have been reviewed at the time. i have to say i've had my most negative review for my second book that came out 2005 which was a useful experience for me as an editor. i know what it's like to be on the other side. as a consequence i try to be careful and respectful of writers in the effort that it takes to write a book and understand that even if her credits didn't appreciate the book to really make sure that we gave it its due in that we wrote about it accurately. when i write a review although currently not writing them, i've always made a point of in the most critical and negative reviews appointing out with the author did right and what they did well.

you can't just go after someone like that. writing a book is hard. it takes a long time and sometimes people have one book in them lesser life goal to publish a book. you have to be cognizant of the take it into account. >> host: a new york times bestseller is on the top of that, how do you compile those list and to is that a point of pride that you see as many people as possible? >> guest: the actual mechanics of that is the top-secret coca-cola formula of the new york times. we have our own methods to take into account and to do it independently and responsibly. we have a team of editors who compile those. they remain quite separate from the rest and that's to avoid

conflict of interest. were wayne and on the books and making judgments the what they're doing is independently looking at the data so we want to make sure there's no undo between those two. but i love that the new york times bestsellers such a point of pride that it remains the standard for what makes a book a significant seller in this country. it's very different from what we do. were doing criticism and judgments about the quality of the book and there some books that become new york times bestsellers and maybe some that we didn't review a given negative review too. and they still become a new york times bestseller. you could say the worst thing possible about them and people still want to read them. >> what are some of the books you're looking for to reading the summer for this coming fall?

>> guest: the book i just opened is a book by robert -- who is a former editor-in-chief and editor of the new yorker. it's an older book but it's about charles dickens and his children. charles dickens had ten children, possibly an 11th and this is a book about what their lives are like about charles dickens as a father. not a new book. i can't really say about the new books i'm reading because i don't want to shore cards but they are are a lot of great big books coming out this fall. it will be an exciting book season. last year there's a lot of hesitation around the fall book season because of the election. people are hoping that the sure there will not be that kind of distraction. the new cycle right now is

incredibly absorbing. i also think readers are looking for counterprogramming and to get away from that. especially when summer obsessively watching tv looking at social media. i think a good book weather history book or novel can provide an escape from that new cycle. >> pamela is the editor of the new york times book review, her most recent book, my life with bob, book tv visited the new york times a couple of years back. we did a profile piece on the new york times book review. if you'd like to see that go to the website, booktv.org and type in pamela paul and you can watch the entire piece. >> thursday night, we look at technology and the internet. starting at 8:00 p.m., venture capitalist scott hartley discusses his book, the fuzzy and the techie.

then zoe quinn discusses her book, crash override. university of arizona sociology professor, jennifer earl was interviewed on her book. later, former google data scientist, seth stevens on his book "everybody lies". the tv in prime time all this week on c-span2. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. this brought you today by a cable or satellite provider.

>> now, reuters editor at large harold evans discusses writing for clarity in his book "do i make myself clear" he's joined with the political commentator in the morning show. this is an hour long event. [inaudible] [inaudible] >> good evening and welcome to the strand bookstore. i'm nancy. i am the owner of the store along with my dad. my dad worked in history, my grandfather found at the store and 1927 in an area that was on his book row. it ran from union square