Q. What are you reading?

A. "The Beatles" by Robert Spitz. It's a huge book that my daughter gave me for Christmas. I pick it up, read some, put it down. Also, on one of our Mainland journeys, I found "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger. It's a love story — kind of. It's literally about a guy who travels back and forth in time and watches his wife-to-be grow up. ... I'm also reading "The Heart of Being Hawaiian" by Sally-Jo Bowman. She was on the show the other day, so I just started it, and it's really terrific.

Q. Your daughter and work brought you two, but how did you discover and what do you like about Niffenegger's book?

A. Actually Mrs. Matthews, Linda Coble, reads a lot. Every week we look at books from The New York Times best-seller list, and she decides what she thinks would be good, and nine times out of 10, I agree. We go at it as a team. When I first saw this one, I thought, 'Oh, no, Oprah,' but it's a great story told in a very intriguing fashion, and I like it a lot.

Q. Does this broad reading interest reflect your natural curiosity seen as you engage a variety of subjects during your morning show?

A. It may be — they are pretty diverse books. Because, in all humility, that's the one skill you have to have doing the morning show: You have to be able to talk to a lot of different people doing a lot of different things. I'm really interested in everything, and if an author strikes my fancy, that's all I need.