Obama's Reading List

[jminnis]

Obama's alleged reading list is pretty interesting, though I have to wonder if it's accurate and complete. If so, I'm seeing a disappointing lack of books on military history/science, economics, and science. Still, there are some very good books on that list, and few of them are light weight.

Comments

[torrilin]

If he reads at anything like a normal pace, no it's not accurate and complete. Even a horribly slow reader can get through a book in a day if they're working at it. So (like most people) that's just books he remembers enough to talk about. Figure that he's probably going through at least 1-2 leisure books a week, and he reads fluently enough to go through 1000 or so pages of work related stuff in a week... seems reasonable given his profession and current job.

[ukelele]

A book a day? Yeah, if I didn't have other things I needed to do in my life that took time and depleted my brain. (And I'm not a slow reader.) I don't come anywhere close to 1-2 leisure books a week and haven't in years. It'd be great, but it's not going to happen.

As for the contents of the list...my feeling is no one can possibly know all the things you need to know to be a good president, but one can fill in the gaps with well-chosen advisors. So I'd look to his military, economic, and science advisors, and see what you think about those.