- George Pelecanos, THE WAY HOME
- Thomas Friedman, HOT, FLAT, AND CROWDED
- Richard Price, LUSH LIFE
- Kent Haruf, PLAINSONG
- David McCullough, JOHN ADAMS
4 days ago
24 August 2009
What President Obama is reading on vacation
"In all, the books on his list total around 2,300 pages — meaning the president would have to read close to 300 pages each day of his week-long vacation to polish off the list." Now that's how you relax! Full list, from CNN:
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6 comments:
I'm disappointed that our President reads Thomas Friedman, but everything else is fantastic.
sorry to be a hater, but doesn't that list feel a little too focus-grouped. when a person's reading list matches his/her persona too well, I get suspicious.
and no need hate on TF. You only need to read one of his globalization books, because they get repetitive. but one is worthwhile.
Maybe he submitted a list of books to his advisers, and then they vetted them. (I think I found my next line of work.)
@Ellen - As newspapers slowly go out of business, this should become a growing field for book critics. Take heart!
@8YOD - Obama has long been on record as being a big fan of The Wire, and Price was one of the writers for that show, so it makes sense to me that he would be reading Richard Price. The Adams biography and the Friedman book are pretty self-explanatory. The other two may well be the product of image consultants - for all we know, the President reads Robert Ludlum on vacation.
Here's a question for all of you: which author would you LEAST like your President to be a devoted fan of? Would it be worse if he was a big fan of a shitty novelist, or a highly-regarded novelist like, say, Thomas Pynchon or Stephen King, whose works evince a twisted world-view?
i would be a little fired up to see a paparazzi photo with him carrying a Nora Roberts novel.
You mean besides Stephenie Meyer? Heh.
WG, I wouldn't mind him being a fan of an author with a twisted world-view, as long as he wasn't a SUPERfan, you know, of "I hung around after a Chuck Palahniuk reading to give him a painting I did in my own blood" strength. Of course, if he were, his administration would never let that get out anyway. If he read shitty novels and was proud of reading nothing else, I think that would be the worst thing. You know, Mom, the flag, apple pie and Sue Grafton (disclaimer: never read a Sue Grafton book, they could be good for all I know), footnotes are for elitists, etc.
Slate's piece on this points out that Pelecanos also wrote for "The Wire," which I knew but forgot.
8, did you read the profile of Nora Roberts in the New Yorker recently? So bizarre to look at writing and publishing from her end.
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