That was just a joy. Every single day was fantastic. As much as you see is as much fun as we had every day on the set. We joked, we laughed, we never had an argument or a fight and on a film that is rare. We had to meet before she chose us and she met with each person and saw how our chemistry was with others and we all had amazing chemistry. I am so proud to be a part of it. It was so much fun. So much fun. [laughter] i missed brittany. That was the sad thing. But that is the thing about hollywood if any of you want to be an actress . How many want to be an actress . Oh, good, that is fantastic. I dont have to tell the story. It is not as good as it seems. It has to be my acting coach told me it has to be your only option. The only thing you could every see yourself doing in order for you to withstand what you go through before you make it. There is a lot of rejection. [applause] when i tune in on the weekend, it is authors sharing new releases. Watching the nonfiction authors on booktv is the best television for serious readers. On cspan they can have a longer conversation and delve into their subjects. Booktv weekends bring you author after author that spotlight the work of fascinating people. I love booktv and i am a cspan fan. Congressman, jerry connolly, what are you reading . Just for this Richard Reaves book on president kennedy, profile and power, excellent book. A delight to read. Brilliant prose, little gossipally and rather critical of jkf but the maturation of this man and his brief time in the oval office, nonetheless, pretty admirable. So having lived through those days as a young person it was a delight real to go back and live what through what kennedy did as president. Host what made you pick that up . Guest i went to a series of autobiographies and the last one they gave me was this and i had read the book before and i thought i might reread it. I am so glad i did. It was a delight to read. I am reading jane mayors book on dark money. That is less of a delight oo to read. Not because of her but the story is disturbing and about really the unbelievable influence of rightwing billionaire money in american political life. It is not only, you know, buying Television Time for candidates. It is infiltrating think tanks, and universities, and socalled citizen movements that are really fronts for very special interests with big money. It is really a disturbing thing for all americans to consider the wholesale purchase of our political life in many, many aspects by a group of determined idalogs who have a lot of money. Host where did you get the idea for that book . Guest actually, it was sent to me here. I thought i ought to read that day some day and some day came. I am about half way through that. As i said, that is a less enjoyable read. Host what kind of books do you generally gravitate towards . Guest well, lets see, my regular reading is history, and biography and then Public Policy. For fun and a break i will read mysteries and literature. I am an old english lit major. I dont get as much time to read literature as much as i would like to but periodically i am able to. Host your Congressional District is across the river and you dont have the long flights home for reading type. Where do you build it in . Guest my whole life i have been a compulsive reader. If i am waiting between events i pickup a book and read it. If i am traveling, sometimes on an airplane, i went to china and i had a lot of read time flying and coming and i was able to get a lot of reading in. But it is like breathing air for me. You have to read. Host we asked your staff prior to coming over here today some of the books you had recently read and two were on Supreme Court justices. Justice brennan and marshall. Guest yeah, i have a fascination with the role of the third branch of the government. In part because it gets so little scrutiny. And i will prefer to it as as priesthood that somehow fits in that marvel building that looks like a greek temple and they periodically are like thunder bolts from olympus throw down wisdom and guidance and that is not how it should be. They are a branch of government like the other two and need to be held accountable like the other two branches of government. I very much want to better understand who these people who make up that court, what is the nature of their decisions, and how does this impact american life. Host when you are reading a book like that if you see something you disagree with what is your reaction . Guest well it depends on what that is. If it is slupy, if someone gets history wrong sloppy it bothers me there was no Fact Checking or the mistake could be fundamental. It was a book about president s in our lifetime but it was talking about geget get ttysbert was wrong. I thought why didnt the Fact Checkers get it. If you are a historian, why didnt you . Host do you ever read books you disagree with politically . Guest oh, yeah. Craig shirley, a conservative author, i have read some of this work. You can still learned and be informed from someone elses point of view even one that is pretty different of your own. Host are there books you go back to from time to time . Guest i am always reluctant to reread a book, although i do, because life is so short and there is so much to read. I dont want to go back over ground i already tread. Host with the reading you do congressman, do you ever find you can affect Public Policy through this knowledge or the reading itself . Guest i do. When i was in graduate school i took a course with a historian ernie may who wrote a book on the uses of history and the purpose of that course was to help illim not how policymakers misuse history largely through a analogies. In his mind, he was a plucky leader, fighting against all odds and enemies and hanging in there basking in accurate democratic ideals. That was the analogy for johnson. What could go wrong . We saw what went wrong. That was in his head and when he became president he expanded the war based on a lot of world war ii that were not appropriate. Policymaker do it all of the time. People take about munich. And kennedy during the missile crisis when talking about the strike in cuba he said i dont want my brother to be the projoe of the 1960 meaning a pearl harbor like strike. That y issues of history matter. There are many time i hear someone Say Something and it is fun to add to but say the other part of the history is xyz so having a command of history is useful. Host do you share books with your colleagues and other members of Congress Share with you . Guest there are a group who are sharing back and forth. My buddy Brian Higgins from buffalo are always trading world war reading and what is good. So yeah. Host are there authors you go back to time and time again . Or if this author has a new book out you read it. Guest yes, we are all waiting for robert carol to come out with the final log on lynden johnson. So there are authors like that. I remember when William Manchester did the serial biography of churchill same thing and i could not wait for that to come out and read it. So there are authors like that. That is kind of fun waiting for that book we are all anticipating to hit the market. I think it is an adult version of how kids felt about the Harry Potter Series waiting for that next one to come out. Host did you read the Harry Potter Series . Guest i read everyone of them to my daughter. Host what did you think . Guest i loved it. I thought it was great. I was so excited as a lover of reading that my daughter and her friends suddenly reading wasnt a chore but something they could not wait to get their hands on it. And when she was older, her friends got permission to be at the bookstore at midnight and purchase the book, bring it home and stay up all night reading it. And i thought any author that has that ability to excite and get kids reading as not a burden, or assignment, but as a joy and pleasure she has got a lot working for her. Host where do you get your boo books . Bookstores . Amazon . Library . Guest all of the above. I collect books. My wife will tell you way too many. I probably poses thousands at this point. We are amazed the floor hasnt crashed. Friends give them to me on occasions like birthdays, christmas and whatever. I borrow books from friends. One of mief Staff Members shares my love of this and we have my similar taste so we go back and forth about what about this or that. I will not use a kindle or book online and the reason i wont is i do not wish to contribute to the demise of the published book. I want bookstores to be around forever and i want people to be able to have the option and pleasure of reading a physical book. And some on my staff think that is a little old fashion. But i still mourn the closure of bookstores like borders and daltons and so many others that used to be fairly poplar and most are gone. Host when the head of the fairfax, virginia librarian comes in what are their concerns and what are your answers . Guest there concern largely is funding. Obviously i am supportive of our library system. We have a very Robust Library system. Most people that live in our county have library cards. It has evolved so there is a lot of technology involved in the libraries now. It is also a safe place for a lot of kids to go to be able to do research and do their homework. I can relate to that because frankly as a kid i went to the library after school. I read magazines and then books. So the libraries we have today are in many ways a far cry from those kinds of libraries but the functions are not that similar. Host representative connolly, do you remember the first Nonfiction Book you read that stimulated your love of reading . Guest when i was young, i would say around the fifth grade, i am reading all of jewels burn, all of edgar allen poe, all of charles dickens. I remember being blown away. Extraordinary characters that lead you to another world. And those i had that habit of if i liked an author i wanted to Read Everything by that author. I still do that like in m mysteries today and history. If i like an author i Read Everything he or she has written. All of dash hammond, and dick francis and robert parker. I get hooked and want to run through their portfolio of writing. I was that way as a kid and read all of the classical authors when i look back but i enjoyed reading it. I didnt do it because of who they were. I did it because of the pleasure of the thing. Host congressman connolly, are you a fan of William Shakespeare . Guest i am. Host why . Guest shakespeare is really foundationalal foundational for the english language. In many ways, he is really the philosopher of the english language, too. Is there a Human Emotion or experience that he did not anticipate and express better than you or i ever will . That is an incredible role to play and skill to poses and nobody has done it better than William Shakespeare in the english language. We just celebrated the 400th anniversary of his birthday. He allegedly died on the same day he was born only many dec e decades later. It was sevontes birthday as well and he plays something similar in terms of his role in the spanish language. And i actually was thinking about it the other day in terms of just how empowering a figure shakespeare really was. This man was under deadlock. It wasnt like he had years to write his opius. He had deadlines to meet because we had a play to put on. So it is doubling impressive. His irve, if you will, what he produced in his lifetime is genius. Host what is a book you would recommend about congress . Is there an author, in your view, that has gotten it right . Guest the house historian, robert remny, wrote a book on congress that is a history on congress and i think it as good as any to get yourself oriented. You know, somebody there are some figures here in congress who are worthy of examination who serve long terms in the house. Henry clay, John Quincy Adams. John quincy adams served 17 years in the house. As president he was considered a lar failed affair but after being president he came to the house and found his voice and he was a champion of the right of the people to petition their government, he was an incredible champion of abolition way before his time, he was a statesman, and although he drove southern slavery holders to distraction here in the house, nonetheless, they respected his intellect. He is an incredible figure. There are great heroic figures who served in the house that are worthy of reading about and learning. Host and there is a brand new biography out on John Quincy Adams this spring. Have you thought about writing a book . If you did what would it be about . Guest actually there are two books yes, i have. There are lots i would like to write about. I served 14 years in local government and i think local government deserves a lot more um, appreciation than the gets and i would love to write a book maybe on local government. Two others. One, i would like to write about the congress during the civil war because think about what else they did. So that congress, while the civil war is raging, we do the homestead act, we do the Land Grant University act, the Transcontinental Railroad and there are extraordinary things they are doing during the civil war which you would think would consume you. But they had the visions and foresight as did lincoln to continue to invest in this country. I think that is rather extraordinary story and i would like to write a book about that. And the other one that is sort of inside waiting to come out is just a broader, more philosophical phone on what i would call the unexamined thought. There is a lot of conventional wisdom that never gets examined and upon examination you go that could be wrong as you bring it up. I have lived here 40 years in washington and i think a lot of unexamined thoughts drive us and can do harm. The domino theory of Southeast Asia during the vietnam war was the predicate for the whole thing. It was wrong. Nobody admitted it and it repeated and incredible loss and a waste patiend part of a decad. One wonders what might have been if that thought receivered more scrutiny and challenge. Host have you read a bio on every american president . Guest i dont know if. I think on most of them. Host are they helpful . Guest yeah, i think so. To study the history and what they did and the internal life of the figures. What is striking to me is most of the occupants of the white house historically who spent their whole lives hungering and thirsting for this ambition find themselves pretty unsatisfied when they reach it. And often leads the white house disapoinded leaves disillusioned or broken. Very view leave pishing for more. And that tells you something about maybe human ambition and about political ambition in particular. Host and finally congressman gerald connolly, what is on your Summer Reading list that you are looking forward to . Guest i am hoping some friends provide me with reading material. I stopped by a bookstore recently and got a couple books. I am looking at reading a book about Michael Collins who was an Irish Revolutionary hero in the beginning of the 20th century. They were celebrating the hundredth anniversary of that and it had a lot to do with the founding of the irish free state and he was assassinated during the civil war that occurred in 19201921. So i also have a biography i picked up on aaron burr i am looking forward to. And there is a monthly historical narrative about p precivil war and the forces aligned to create the Secession Movement in america. Those three are next probably. I dont know if i will get to the summer i will probably read those before the summer but we will see. Host do you read book reviews . Guest sure. I look forward to the New York Times list and i bemoan the fact the Washington Post doesnt have a separate section but does book reviews periodically and online. Host gerald connolly, a democrat from virginia representing the 11th district there. This is booktv on the cspan2. When i tune into it on the weekend usually it is authors sharing new releases. Watching the non fiction authors on booktv is the best television for serious readers. On cspan they can have a longer conversation and delve into their subjects. Book weekends bring you author after author to spotlight the work of fascinating people. I love booktv and i am a cspan fan. Here is a look at authors featured on after wards. A look at the gun history in america. And California SenBarbara Boxer looked at her life in politics. And see more hersh discusses the events around the killing of osama bin laden. And this weekend holt profiles the women instrument in the development of americas Space Program in the 1940s and 50s. The script of women was unique in that they had a woman supervis supervisor. In the beginning they did a lot of trajectory and calculated the potential of different rocket propellants and did trajectory for many early missiles working on the corporate and sergeant. Things changed when the space race happened and nasa was formed. The women ended up becoming the labs first computer programmers and had careers of 4050 years and one still works at nasa today. After wards airs every saturday and you can watch all