mr steyn will be with us for the next two 1/2 hours. the numbers are on the screen. 202737-0001 in the east and central time zone, 0002 for those in the mountain and pacific time zones. you can also contact us by e-mail at booktv@c-span.org or send mr steyn a week. are twitter address is twitter.com/booktv. mr steyn, when did you start writing? >> guest: i started writing in school. i always like writing. it is difficult to be a writer if you don't because it is actually physically and pleasant work. certainly if you start in the days of manual typewriters and carbon ribbons and things it is physically unpleasant work to do and it is antisocial work to do as well. a lot of writers will live very dull lives. when i was a boy i liked riding and i like finding out about writers and the writers are like moseley had incredibly tedious lives. pg wouldhouse who was a prolific writer and marvelous writer and suspended lighter and had a boring life. he spent his life, six decades sitting at his home on long island. he would get up in the morning

mr. steyn will be with us to take your calls, e-mails and tweets. the number is on the screen: >> you can contact us by e-mail, book tv or seen mr. steyn a tweet. mr. steyn, when did you start writing? >> guest: i started writing at school. i always liked writing. i think it's very difficult to be a writer if you don't, because it's actually physically unpleasant work, i think, and certainly if you started in the days of manual type writers and carbon ribbons and things, it's physically unpleasant work to do. and it's antisocial work to do as well. a lot of writers lead very dull lives, and when i was a boy and i -- i like writing, and i liked finding out about writers, and the writers i liked mostly had incredibly tedious lives. p.g. woodhouse, a splendid writer and an utterly boring life. he spent six decades at his house, getting up in in the morning and type, and then watch daytime soap operas which he became fascinate by and then he would go to sleep and then do the same again. the ones i

. >> host: this e-mail for you, mr. steyn, although i disagreed with mr. steyn's political views with little exception, i admire his wit and even his writing but in a similar vein, are there any current riders of the left that he admires? is a certain rather famous editorialist that i can't help notice similarities. >> guest: well, you know, one of the things i do enjoy, i started reading when i worked street sweeping, is when i began as a journalist but i always enjoyed reading left hand, left wing critiques of me. and i think, i think that's actually very pleasurable to say, in fact i believe when i applied for my green card, i was obliged to send in some information about me. and just as a joke, i'm not sure, i don't know whether my immigration lawyer wound up submitting it in the end, i wound up putting in a rather devastating left wing critique of my writing that i thought was actually fabulously written. and i always, i always look to find someone like that. and the problem, i have a problem with certain, certain liberal writers. i mean, i hate it if

mr. steyn's best-selling works include: >> host: in mark citizen in your 2006 book, "america alone," where did that title come from? >> guest: i have to confess the title came from the publisher, from my editor, a gentleman called harry crocker. i had a more useful tight he thought was for losers and would guarantee we sold 2,800 copies. he thought that "america alone" was a hit title, and he proved right on that. >> host: what was your original title? >>> i'm keeping that to when i'm a multibillionaire and can afford to indulge myself by writing books with oblique elusive titles that sell 2,400 companies. >> host: what is that book about? >> guest: the book -- by my original title was on the same theme as "america alone." eventually turned into. which is civilizational collapse, my shtick, my niche. what a good editor does, which is what harry did for me, he identifies what your unique selling point is and gets you to focus on it. he says all this tap-dancing around the issue in the first 50 p

jim >> host: in "mark steyn's american songbook" mr steyn writes an election is one tuesday every otherber. the cultures every day every month every year. politicians are for the most part finger in the wind bunch. like milton friedman says, don't wait for the right people to get elected. to greet the conditions by which the wrong people are forced to do the right thing. this e-mail from tim long. enjoy reading -- this tweet -- enjoy reading mr. steyn's work but can't reconcile respect for his riding with him hosting for a demagogue like rush limbaugh. >> guest: many people who criticize russia doesn't listen to him. he has great with. you can do that three of the day without being witty, without being able to see the comedy in your own side. to connect that to the passage you read, what people resent about him is he doesn't subscribe to the niceties of the broader culture. this is the difficulty for the right. i guest host for him and i love guest hosting for him and every time my guest host a couple people say would you like to do your own talk-radio show and i say the right doesn't n

mr. steyn, i have two questions for you. one, you were talking a little while ago about our decreasing liberties in in this country -- >> guest: that's right. >> host: pj, you still with us? you've got to really hurry here because we're almost out of time. decreasing liberties, please, go ahead. [audio difficulty] >> host: and i apologize, we have -- for whatever reason, the phone has gone out. john in louisville, kentucky, please, go ahead with your question for mark steyn. >> caller: mr. steyn? >> caller: hi, john. >> caller: i'm here with my son david, we're both huge fans, it's an honor to speak with you, and if you ever need to get down to the bible belt, you can come visit us in our conservative bubble. you'd be very comfortable down here, i'm sure. [laughter] >> guest: the last time i was in louisville, i think i landed there prior to visiting santa claus, indiana, just across the border not too far away from you. >> caller: know it well. um, a quick question. i talked to some of my, you know, conservative friends, an