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Authors On Their Life-Changing Encounters With Books

Great writers are great readers. And they have amazing stories to tell. Not just about the books they write, but about the books they read.

Anne Strainchamps and the producers behind “To the Best of Our Knowledge” have been asking authors for years to tell a story about that one book that left a mark. A book they can’t forget. A book that changed everything.

Now they’re sharing their stories with you, delivered in a weekly micro-podcast. New bite-sized episodes every Friday.

Bookmarks

Malcolm Gladwell on 'When Police Kill'

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Journalist Malcolm Gladwell is famous for mining behavioral science for his work, and when it comes to better understanding the intersection of crime, violence, and policing, he turns over and over to criminologist Frank Zimring.More

Robert Macfarlane on 'The Living Mountain'

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Nature writer and adventurer Robert Macfarlane has given away one book more than any other volume. It's "The Living Mountain," by Scottish writer and poet Nan Shepherd.More

Bill T. Jones On 'Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees'

Choreogapher Bill T. Jones recommends Lawrence Weschler's biography of Robert Irwin, an artist who spent his career attempting to capture the subjectivity of the act of experiencing the world around us.

Marshall Boswell On 'Infinite Jest'

David Foster Wallace wrote memorably about AA in his famous novel "Infinite Jest." Writer Marshall Boswell reads one of his favorite passages.

Jennifer Jacquet On 'Last Chance To See'

Environmentalist Jennifer Jacquet recommends "Last Chance to See" by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine.

Helen Macdonald On 'The Dark Is Rising'

Every year, at holiday time, Macdonald reads this tale of a boy who finds out he's one of the "old ones," part of a series from author Susan Cooper. She says it reconnects her with a sense of wonder inspired by what might lurk beneath the surface of the seen world.