Executive Producer Melinda Tichelaar is a speed reader!

At least every week or so, I exchange books with Melinda Tichelaar, the executive producer of “Good Day Chicago”. She’s an avid reader like me. This morning, I handed off “The Shack” by William Young even though Melinda is still plodding through a biography on Hitler.  I’m enjoying the book she highly recommended, “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt.

Meteorologist Mark Strehl reads more than weather maps.

In a room full of journalists, it’s interesting that practically everyone at Fox Chicago is reading something outside of work.  Even our crazy producer Roy Santoro is a book worm. He’s reading “The World Without Us” by Alan Weisman.  This book examines the post-human Earth.  His favorite book is “The Alphabet of Manliness” by Maddox.  This may explain a lot about Roy.

My co-anchor Patrick Elwood is reading “Face Time”, a political novel by Erik Tarloff. Meteorologist Mark Strehl just started “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig which Patrick said he enjoyed.  Producer Becky Rohde is currently reading about the plight of two kids in Chicago’s inner-city.  Maybe she’ll let me borrow “There Are No Children Here” by Alex Kolowitz when she starts “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold which I gave to her last week.

Anchor Jeff Goldblatt "reads" his scripts.

Anchor Jeff Goldblatt says he has no time for books.  He reads as many newspapers as possible and then it’s on to children’s books with his little ones. Regardless, almost everyone in the newsroom has read “Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson – a haunting read with great Chicago history.

This just in: Crazy Roy knows how to read!

Producer Pete Siegal says his one-year-old makes it tough to read anything other than children’s board books.  Pete produces the newscast at       5 a.m.  Because of that, he admits to spending most of his time outside work “reading the back of my eyelids”.