ceremony. this program contains language some may find offensive. ladies and gentlemen, andy borowitz. [applause] thank you very much, and ladies and gentlemen before we begin, let s have a warm round of applause for all the nominees for the 2009 national book award. we can do much better than that. [applause] i believe it was george bernard who wrote what a cluster, and i believe that sums up very well. ladies and gentlemen, i have got to tell you when i first heard the national book awards wanted me to host this evening i was like i would be so honored i would like do it for free, and it turned out they had the exact same idea. [laughter] but i think that is in the spirit of the evening because that is what publishing is all about. [laughter] a lot of hard work and then nothing. so let s hear it for publishing. we are all on this sinking ship together. yes. [applause] now i have to confess and this is true that when the letter came in the mail that said nationa
and castles. this was the beginning of the italian campaign which lasts a very long time, so it was good fixing in the beginning, but when the groundworgroundwork into italy, everything that had been taken out of the countryside actually was in the middle of the battlefield in many cases, and unguarded. so what have been wise thinking in the beginning. ilaria dagnini brey is the author of the new book, the venus fixers. a remarkable story of the soldiers whose saved archive general gore to. the 16th annual national book award ceremony, award giving for books in four categories, fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people s literature. gore vidal was also honored, television writer and he served as emcee for the evening. the ceremony took place this past wednesday. apollo program contains language some may find offensive. ladies and gentlemen, andy borowitz. [applause] before we begin, let s have a warm round of applause although not made out of 2009 book award. com