Books Helped Obama Survive the White House

[applegrove]

https://politicalwire.com/2017/01/16/books-helped-obama-survive-white-house/

"SNIP..........

“Not since Lincoln has there been a president fundamentally shaped — in his life, convictions and outlook on the world — by reading and writing as Barack Obama,” the New York Times reports.

“Last Friday, seven days before his departure from the White House, Mr. Obama sat down in the Oval Office and talked about the indispensable role that books have played during his presidency and throughout his life — from his peripatetic and sometimes lonely boyhood, when ‘these worlds that were portable’ provided companionship, to his youth when they helped him to figure out who he was, what he thought and what was important.”

“During his eight years in the White House — in a noisy era of information overload, extreme partisanship and knee-jerk reactions — books were a sustaining source of ideas and inspiration, and gave him a renewed appreciation for the complexities and ambiguities of the human condition.”

.............SNIP"

[Docreed2003]

1. Poignant post...thank you...

As an only child myself, books were always a way of escape and solace and inspiration. That similarity between myself and Pres Obama was something that drew me to him, even before he was president. His humanness and relatability will be a legacy in and of itself to future generations.

[applegrove]

2. Think how much more he can read in his retirement.

Think how much more he will know. And share. And lead.

[Docreed2003]

6. I trust and hope that he will

[Cattledog]

3. Trump has admitted he doesn't read...

so hopefully his survival will be diminished.

[progressoid]

4. It is soul crushing to think of what is moving into the White House in a few days.

[narnian60]

7. Yes, indeed.

[3catwoman3]

5. I am glad something helped...

...him survive what has to have been an exhausting 8 years.

Many times, I found myself hoping he had a punching bag in the WH gym with Mitch McConnell's face painted on it.

[Lucinda]

8. Hillary is a big reader too. In my world, the most forward thinking

people, are all readers.

[Staph]

9. My sister, the school librarian,

got me a car magnet, an oval that simply says "READ".

I show it proudly on the back of my car!

[GeoWilliam750]

10. Has President Obama provided his reading list for the last few years?

It would be fascinating to see what he sought, and how he was informed, and to add a few things to an already very long reading list.

[applegrove]

11. That's a good idea. Would be great if he led an online

book club of sorts.

[AllaN01Bear]

13. hope he has some good reads whilst in retirement

oh , i dont think he will retire. i think he will be very busy in the background like bill clinton and jimmy cater . he will be more valuable to us democrats that way.

[tclambert]

14. He should leave Donald a recommended reading list.

Ha! Sometimes I just crack myself up.

[mainstreetonce]

15. His summer list

https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/08/12/presidents-summer-reading-list

I read three of these

[Ilsa]

16. "In my dream world, books are free

and reading makes you thin."

I remember reading about how the Clintons would leave bookstores in NYC, back in the 1990s, with a car trunk full of books. Those were pre-Amazon, pre-download days.