9 Books about TV You Need to Read

The Daily Show (The Book) is similar to Live from New York in that it is an oral history book about a political satire show. This book, though, is obviously about The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (and later, Trevor Noah). This book is a fascinating look at how The Daily Show grew from a little known show to a cultural phenomenon.

It features hilarious interviews with Jon Stewart and former correspondents like Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Jason Jones, Ed Helms, John Oliver, Jessica Williams, and Larry Wilmore. It's a fun journey through one of the most influential television shows of the 2000s.

Some huge Seinfeld fanatics have complained that this book is full of information they already knew. However, as a more casual fan of the show, I found this book fascinating! Did you know this popular show almost did not make it on the air or get renewed once it was airing?

Seinfeld has a fascinating origin story, and it became one of the most infuential and important shows in television history. Seinfeldia by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong is an easy-to-read book that explores how Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David took the most mundane aspects of life and turned it into a phenomenon.

This is the only celebrity memoir I included on the list, but there are some great memoirs out there by TV actors with lots of behind-the-scenes stories. Lauren Graham's memoir is framed around the time she spent playing Lorelai on Gilmore Girls. Graham does explore other topics in her essays: writing, working on Parenthood, her relationship with Peter Krause, and more.

The focus of Talking as Fast as I Can, though, is on the beloved Gilmore Girls. She includes a chapter where she watches every episode of Gilmore Girls for the first time and writes her thoughts on each season. She shares her joy over returning to the series and character she loved dearly, and she features snippets of her journal from the set of A Year in the Life. It's a quick and delightful read!