The Book Nook hits the road over and over again
In 1994, I conducted my first radio interviews with authors on WYSO (91.3FM). All these years later I am still doing it. By the end of December I will have produced more than 100 radio shows during 2018. And I have been penning a weekly column about books for this newspaper since 2004. This is my 743nd column.
Along with my book reviews and the author interviews I have had more opportunities to take my bookish activities out into our Miami Valley community during 2018. This year I gave a talk to an enthusiastic audience at the Wright Memorial Library in Oakwood. My topic was “Authors I Have Known.”
I have given this talk numerous ti mesand every one has been different. My hosts will usually give me an hour to talk about some of the authors I have interviewed and/or encountered over the l ast25 years. I often close out my programs with question and answer sessions.
I have learned that it is a good idea to mention in advance to the people who will be introducing me that I would prefer that they don’t mention t henamesofauthors Ihaveinter v ieweddur ing their introductions. I like to surprise my audiences.
This year I also gave my “Authors I Have Known” talk at the Clark County Public Library. After the event ended, I realized that I had made a terrible omission; I had forgottentom ention that I have interviewed astronauts. T herewas the late John Glenn, my childhood hero. The second man on the moon — Buzz Aldrin — I have interviewed him twice. And the last man on the moon, the late Eugene Cernan, too.
My tour of our wonderful local libraries continued when I interviewed Mark Bernstein about hisbook“Grand Eccentrics” in the magnificent Eichelberger Forum at the Dayton Metro Library. I did another interview with Melissa Faye Greene forher Big Read book “The Underdogs.” The Greene County Public Library booked the Little Art Theatre in Yellow Springs and I was joined on stage by Greene, along with our surprise guest Karen Shirk from 4Paws for Ability in Xenia who brought along her dog.
This past week I returned to the Clark County Public L ibraryto talk about the recently completed “Great American Read” on PBS. I have actually interviewed several of the novelists who were included on their list of America’s 100 bestloved novels. By the way, if you enjoyed those TV shows there’s an excellent companion volume called “The Book of Books.”
And I am not quite finished with 2018. On Monday, Nov. 5, I will be doing another author interview before a live audienceaspartofthe Jewish Community Center Cultural Arts and Book Fest. I’ll be talking to Sall y Kohn about her book “The Opposite of Hate — a Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity.”Koh n i sa prolifi c columnist and is currently a political commentator on C NN. Previously s hewas a commenta torforFox News.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www. wyso.org/programs/booknook. Contact him at vick@ vickmickunas.com.