Barack Obama is clearly an avid reader and literature has massively influenced his politics. He talks about books at the drop of a hat, is frequently seen with a book in his hand and, of course, has penned two worldwide bestsellers himself. He has won Grammys for the audio versions of both his books –
Dreams From My Father and
The Audacity of Hope. 
"What’s Barack Obama’s favorite book?" is a common question posed on the Internet search engines every day.
In October, the New York Times asked Obama to provide a list of books and writers that were significant to him. Here goes – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois’
Souls of Black Folk, Martin Luther King’s
Letter From Birmingham Jail, Toni Morrison’s
Song of Solomon, Graham Greene’s
The Power and the Glory and
The Quiet American, Doris Lessing’s
The Golden Notebook, Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s
Cancer Ward, John Steinbeck’s
In Dubious Battle, Robert Caro’s
Power Broker, Studs Terkel’s
Working, Adam Smith’s
Wealth of Nations and
Theory of Moral Sentiments, and also Robert Penn Warren’s
All the King’s Men – a novel about a corrupt Southern governor. And then there were his theology and philosophy influences - Friedrich Nietzsche, Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich.
He mentioned Morrison’s
Song of Solomon many times during his Democratic and Presidential campaigns in 2008, including in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine where he listed Shakespeare and Ernest Hemingway’s
For Whom The Bell Tolls as key influences (incidentally, John McCain also named
For Whom The Bell Tolls as his favorite read). Herman Melville’s
Moby Dick, E.L. Doctorow and Philip Roth have also cropped up in interviews.
Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch – a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about Martin Luther King – is another favorite. And with two young daughters to entertain, he’s read all seven of the Harry Potter books.
After the election, he was spotted leaving his Chicago home carrying a hardcover copy of
Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan – clearly getting in some last-minute homework before beginning the process of naming his cabinet. In the same month, he was spotted carrying a copy of Derek Walcott’s
Collected Poems 1948-1984. Poet Elizabeth Alexander, a close friend, read at his inauguration.
What next? He won’t have time to write another book until his presidency is over. Popping into a bookstore to pick up a new read is out of the question – his people will do that. Security briefing documents are now his must-read of the day rather than Morrison or another Lincoln biography.
Some of this article was originally published on www.abebooks.com
"What’s Barack Obama’s favorite book?" is a common question posed on the Internet search engines every day.
In October, the New York Times asked Obama to provide a list of books and writers that were significant to him. Here goes – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois’ Souls of Black Folk, Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail, Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory and The Quiet American, Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward, John Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle, Robert Caro’s Power Broker, Studs Terkel’s Working, Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments, and also Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men – a novel about a corrupt Southern governor. And then there were his theology and philosophy influences - Friedrich Nietzsche, Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich.
He mentioned Morrison’s Song of Solomon many times during his Democratic and Presidential campaigns in 2008, including in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine where he listed Shakespeare and Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls as key influences (incidentally, John McCain also named For Whom The Bell Tolls as his favorite read). Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, E.L. Doctorow and Philip Roth have also cropped up in interviews. Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch – a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about Martin Luther King – is another favorite. And with two young daughters to entertain, he’s read all seven of the Harry Potter books.
After the election, he was spotted leaving his Chicago home carrying a hardcover copy of Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan – clearly getting in some last-minute homework before beginning the process of naming his cabinet. In the same month, he was spotted carrying a copy of Derek Walcott’s Collected Poems 1948-1984. Poet Elizabeth Alexander, a close friend, read at his inauguration.
What next? He won’t have time to write another book until his presidency is over. Popping into a bookstore to pick up a new read is out of the question – his people will do that. Security briefing documents are now his must-read of the day rather than Morrison or another Lincoln biography.
Some of this article was originally published on www.abebooks.com
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