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The True Meaning of Obama's Reading List

Prez hunkers down with thrillers, Friedman

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 25, 2009 11:27 AM CDT

(Newser) – President Obama is on vacation, and that means it’s the media’s sacred duty to overanalyze his summer reading plans. John Dickerson of Slate delves into the meaning behind what Obama’s packing:

The Way Home by George Pelecanos
Lush Life by Richard Price
Hot Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman
John Adams by David McCullough
Plainsong by Kent Haruf

That’s a pretty uncontroversial list, but obviously not a poll-tested one. For one thing, every single author is a white man.

The president must be a fan of The Wire, because both Pelecanos and Price wrote for that show. John Adams “seems like the kind of thing presidents get with the job,” writes Dickerson, who doubts Obama will get through Friedman’s book. “There’s no book on his list more like his evening briefing books.” Besides, that’s a total of 2,400 pages of reading—so something has to give.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (2)]

The cover of Thomas Friedman's "Hot, Flat, and Crowded."

The cover of George Pelecanos' "The Way Home."

Barack Obama looks at the book titled "The Open Veins of Latin America" by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, after Hugo Chavez handed it to him during the Summit of the Americas, April 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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We can blame John Kennedy for this obsession with presidential reading. Asked at a press conference what he read for relaxation, he named Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. - John Dickerson

In 2006, Bush's list included The Great Influenza , about the 1918 flu. If Obama were reading that today while his White House was issuing a new report about the H1N1 virus, he'd start a national panic. - John Dickerson

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The True Meaning of Obama's Reading List