Michael Orthofer and Tyler Cowen Talk about and Shop for Books
Earlier this summer, Michael Orthofer, author of The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction, videotaped two conversations with Tyler Cowen. In the first see below, Orthofer explains why everyone should read more fiction, how we should choose books, why American popular literature is overrated, what he thinks about authors like Herman Melville, Fyoder Dostoevsky, Goethe, J.K. Rowling, Arno Schmidt, and many others, his recommendations for the best sites for readers, why studying literature at college was such a big disappointment, how much book covers matter, and why his opinion will never be the final word.
In this second video, Cowen and Orthofer go shopping at the Strand Bookstore in New York City and talk about book shopping and how to choose what to read next: