What’s The Matter With Book Discussions

Over at the TPM Cafe Book Club, Thomas Frank is discussing his bestseller What’s the Matter With Kansas.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him, and he’s got a sharp yet laid-back wit. Here he reflects on a book reading in Kansas:

How has the book been received in Kansas? Well, at first there was a great deal of hostility from the local media, arising, I suspect, from a lot of bad impulses. My favorite example of this: I was in Wichita in May 2005 to speak at a bookstore, and a TV crew wanted to do an interview before I got started. First question: Are you “afraid” to be in Wichita? I laughed. Second question: Why did I “flee” the Midwest? I wrote the book while living in Chicago, I pointed out. Third question: Why was I doing only one reading in the state of Kansas? This was my tenth, as a matter of fact. You can easily decipher the journalistic narrative that they were plugging into here: Blue-state, east-coast, glasses-wearing elitist makes fun of the honest, God-fearing people of the heartland. Good thing they didn’t catch me swigging a latte or something.

Hopefully, we’ll get him as a guest speaker at Drinking Liberally at some point. During our own book discussion would have been nice, but what can you do. Speaking of which, any thoughts on a future book discussion?