but when you're dealing with someone like ian mccune or peter taylor or anne taylor, you're teaming with somebody who can write and you want to get that across to the reader. >> host: here, the really stupid question here million dollar question, what's the importance of books? >> guest: of books generally? >> host: yes. >> guest: well, that is a big question. not a stupid one. books are the repositories of centuries, millenia, of human culture. that's where we put it. everything goes into the pains of books venally. even science -- eventually, even science goes into books. people -- this is not a reading nation in the sense of a book-reading nation. i'm sorry to say we're not a book-reading nation in the way england is or france. we do have many readers, as i've known from the wonderful response i had to my farewell column, but books are not a big part of american culture they way they are in the british culture, but their still there, and if you're in the business, reading books or writing them, if you're in show business, you -- write your own autobiography. whose the guitarist for th