Why Should I Read This?

Alternate Wednesdays during Morning Edition and All Things Considered

Hosted by Rebeccah Bechtold

Fran Connor

Kerry Jones

Katie Lanning

Adam Scheffler

In "Why Should I Read This?" professors from the Wichita State English Department have just 60 seconds to explain why listeners should read their favorite works of literature.

Latest Episodes

Why You Should Read 'Hook'

Wichita State English professor Adam Scheffler first encountered the poem “Hook” by James Wright when he was 20, and he’s been thinking about it ever since. He explains why it’s so memorable, and why it might stick with you too, in today’s Why Should I Read This?
Why you should read the Lais of Marie de France

We don’t know much about Marie de France. We don’t even know who she really was. But we certainly know how she feels about courtly love. Katie Lanning explains on today’s Why Should I Read This?
Why you should read 'Money'

British writer Martin Amis had a reputation as an angry young man. Yes, he was a bad boy, but Wichita State English professor Fran Connor says he also had big things to say about capitalism and culture… on today’s Why Should I Read This?
Why you should read 'I'm Nobody! Who Are You?'

Wichita State English professor Adam Scheffler is an Emily Dickinson superfan. But he thinks that’s a bit ironic since Dickinson cherished anonymity, not popularity. He explains in today’s Why Should I Read This?
Why you should read 'Moll Flanders'

Why read a book whose ending gets spoiled on the first page? For eighteenth-century readers, there were plenty of reasons, especially if they were reading Daniel Defoe. Katie Lanning tells us more on today’s Why Should I Read This.
Why you should read 'Ragtime'

Kerry Jones is an English professor and time traveler. Sort of. Today, she takes us back to the dawn of the 20th century on Why Should I Read This?
Why you should read 'The House of the Seven Gables'

Most readers probably associate Nathaniel Hawthorne with Hester Prynne and her scarlet ‘A’; but Wichita State English professor Rebeccah Bechtold thinks a later Hawthorne character is also deserving of fame. She tells us why in today’s Why Should I Read This?
Why you should read 'Ulysses'

Ulysses is one of those books that people want to say they’ve read – but haven’t. In today’s Why Should I Read This, Fran Connor tells us why you shouldn’t be intimidated by it and why it’s actually worth your time.
Why you should read Shakespeare's Sonnet 65

Wichita State English professor Adam Scheffler loves romance… but also values a good reality check. He explains how Shakespeare’s Sonnet 65 offers both, in today’s Why Should I Read This?
Why you should read 'The Man Who Thought Himself a Woman'

This is 89-1, KMUW. Nineteenth century American writers were notoriously rigid in their gender expression, or so we thought. Wichita State English professor Rebeccah Bechtold challenges that myth in today’s Why Should I Read This.