Hanging out with The Book Guys

I recently got an MP3 player and have been using it to listen to podcasts, mostly of radio shows. Here's how it works: Instead of turning on your radio when the show airs, you download the show from the Internet and listen to it whenever you want.

One of the shows I've rediscovered through podcasting is The Book Guys, which plays on NPR sometime during the weekend, but I can never remember when. Usually I had to settle for a catching a few minutes of it while driving in the car, but now I can hear previous shows in their entirety, thanks to podcasting.

The Book Guys are licensed book appraisers, and much of the show revolves around audience members calling in, asking for an expert opinion on the worth of a certain book. It unfolds much like Antiques Roadshow, the PBS TV show where people tote in their attic treasures (or junk) -- half the people are pleasantly surprised, and the others are disappointed. There's always some newbie who thinks they bought a priceless First Edition of Huckleberry Finn for 15 cents, only to be told it's a worthless reprint.

Each Book Guys show is packed with information useful to booksellers and collectors. They talk about a variety of book-related topics with novelists, publishers, autograph experts, printers, book conservators, and others. They're not quite as funny as the Car Talk guys, but come pretty close sometimes.

An MP3 player, I guess, is like a generic iPod. It's like having a VCR or a Tivo for your audio. If you don't have one, you can still listen to The Book Guys using software that's already on your PC, like RealPlayer or Windows Media Player. Follow the "archives" link to listen to past broadcasts or download them.