NPR's Guy Raz - Five books for journalists

Normally I avoid most of the e-mail entreaties I get from this or that website seeking a backlink to promote some add-water-and-stir journalism piece they've done. (You know, the Top such-and-such or so-and so ways to pimp your reporting or whatever.)

Although, in the spirit of full disclosure, a couple of them have named this piece of online real estate a top journalism blog or whatever the entreaty of the week is.

But I was intrigued enough by an email (going to take a while to get used to the AP's new hyphenless form) from The Browser that I gave it a look.

The piece in question is an interview with NPR's Guy Raz about the five books he'd recommend for journalists. They are definitely not your standard fare:

• Daniel Schorr:  Staying Tuned: A Life in Journalism
• Edward Bliss Jr. and James Hoyt: Writing News for Broadcast
• George Orwell: Homage to Catalonia
• George Packer: The Assassin's Gate
• Christopher Hitchens: Letters to a Young Contrarian

As I said, not your standard fare.

Nor is the London-based Browser, which goes by the monicker "Writing Worth Reading." I rather fancy it and kind of wish I'd known about it before my recent trip to Britain. Would have been fascinating to sit down and have a conversation with the folks behind it.