Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Katie Couric Releases Advice Book

CBS Evening News discusses book of essays on life from 116 "A-listers" and talks about what's next in her own careeer

(CBS News)  Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News," has, over the course of her illustrious career, interviewed countless fascinating people. She's asked 116 of them about advice that changed their lives. The result is her new book: "The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives."

On "The Early Show" Tuesday - the release date of her book - Couric said she's received advice from a diverse group of people. Queen Rania of Jordan, football star Drew Brees, former President Bill Clinton, singer Sheryl Crow, actor Hugh Jackman and reporter Christiane Amanpour are just some of the big names included in the book.

"I'm really excited about this collection," Couric said.

Couric said the idea for the book came from a graduation address.

"I do graduation addresses pretty frequently. I take them seriously. It's a big responsibility," she said. "You want to leave the kids - if they're not too hungover to listen - with some piece of advice. And I'm tired of talking about myself, blah, blah, blah. So I decided to reach out to some of the ... people I've interviewed through the years and had gotten to know a bit ... [and asked them,] 'What would you tell young people going out in the world, especially in the tough economic times.' They wrote back really beautiful things. And I thought, 'Wow, this is going to be wonderful to put in a book' to sort of cast a wide net and to see if all of the people who had lived extraordinary lives could share some of their secrets, some of what happened to them. And I thought it would be really helpful to people, not only graduating from college, but from all of us. I thought, 'Well, if I'm loving reading them, other people might as well.' So I've written the introduction and we got, as you said, 116 people in all."

Co-anchor Erica Hill pointed out Couric has a lot of changes in her life. She said Couric's contract is up at CBS.

Hill said, "As you figure out what the next step is for you, whatever it may be, is there anything that stood out to you as advice to help you make that decision?"

Couric answered, "I think, you know, sort of listening to your inner self. I think a lot of people talked about that. And Michelle Kwan talked about learning to get up when you fall. I don't feel like I've fallen. But the importance of being persistent and continuing on a path and being true to what makes really you happy, finding your passion. Yeah, you know, I love to talk, obviously. ... I think I love to be my authentic self. It served me well over the years. I'm looking for a place that I can really be me and hopefully that will bring me the fulfillment I'm looking for."

She added, "But I love my job. And I really found a lot of satisfaction doing 'Evening News' and I'm really proud of the team and all we've accomplished. So I don't want to say that I'm not proud of this chapter in my life either - speaking of books."

Couric's profits from book sales will be donated to Scholarship America, a nonprofit scholarship and educational support organization founded in 1958 that has made it possible for more than 1.7 million students to go to college.

Read More.

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