# 11 books President Obama thinks everyone should read **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 19, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570 "2017-01-19T20:11:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/1 "2017-01-19T20:11:20Z")
[Link to article](http://uk.businessinsider.com/books-barack-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read-2017-1?r=US&IR=T) Here’s his list of what he considers essential books. > [@](#): > > ‘The Naked and the Dead’ by Norman Mailer > ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez > ‘The Golden Notebook’ by Doris Lessing > ‘The Woman Warrior’ by Maxine Hong Kingston > ‘The Underground Railroad’ by Colson Whitehead > ‘Gilead’ by Marilynne Robinson > ‘Three-Body Problem’ by Cixin Liu > ‘Gone Girl’ by Gillian Flynn > ‘Fates and Furies’ by Lauren Groff > ‘Song of Solomon’ by Toni Morrison > ‘A Bend in the River’ by V.S. Naipaul I suppose it reflects our post-literate age but what a sad list. (And I’m not particularly getting at Obama, Trump’s would have been far worse.) No classics of Western and world civilization, no Iliad, no Aeneid, no Arabian Nights, no Dante or Ariosto or Tasso, nothing by Montaigne or Shakespeare or Milton, no Henry Fielding, no Goethe, no Jane Austen, no Stendhal, no Pushkin, no Dickens, no Balzac, no Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, no George Eliot or Thomas Hardy. One might say Obama is sticking to modern books. I don’t think that’s true, I just think that he has either never read the classics or couldn’t appreciate them when he tried and I think that’s probably true of most of our politicians these days. The age of the well-read and erudite political class is over. And that is indeed sad. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/2 "2017-01-19T20:18:48Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > [Link to article](http://uk.businessinsider.com/books-barack-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read-2017-1?r=US&IR=T) > > Here’s his list of what he considers essential books. > > I suppose it reflects our post-literate age but what a sad list. (And I’m not particularly getting at Obama, Trump’s would have been far worse.) > > No classics of Western and world civilization, no Iliad, no Aeneid, no Arabian Nights, no Dante or Ariosto or Tasso, nothing by Montaigne or Shakespeare or Milton, no Henry Fielding, no Goethe, no Jane Austen, no Stendhal, no Pushkin, no Dickens, no Balzac, no Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, no George Eliot or Thomas Hardy. > > One might say Obama is sticking to modern books. I don’t think that’s true, I just think that he has either never read the classics or couldn’t appreciate them when he tried and I think that’s probably true of most of our politicians these days. The age of the well-read and erudite political class is over. And that is indeed sad. Oh wow, another Obama bashing thread by **aldiboronti** , shocker! It’s funny, that list was distilled from an interview where Obama discusses reading a shit ton of classics. I guess you’re too busy reading Tolstoy to click a link though. Also, those aren’t a list of 10 books Obama is recommending everyone read. Good job lying about that in the title. They’re just ones he mentioned in an interview. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/3 "2017-01-19T20:21:22Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > [Link to article](http://uk.businessinsider.com/books-barack-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read-2017-1?r=US&IR=T) > > Here’s his list of what he considers essential books. > > I suppose it reflects our post-literate age but what a sad list. (And I’m not particularly getting at Obama, Trump’s would have been far worse.) > > No classics of Western and world civilization, no Iliad, no Aeneid, no Arabian Nights, no Dante or Ariosto or Tasso, nothing by Montaigne or Shakespeare or Milton, no Henry Fielding, no Goethe, no Jane Austen, no Stendhal, no Pushkin, no Dickens, no Balzac, no Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, no George Eliot or Thomas Hardy. > > One might say Obama is sticking to modern books. I don’t think that’s true, I just think that he has either never read the classics or couldn’t appreciate them when he tried and I think that’s probably true of most of our politicians these days. **The age of the well-read and erudite political class is over. And that is indeed sad.** As evidenced by Trump taking over. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/4 "2017-01-19T20:23:05Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I suppose it reflects our post-literate age but what a sad list. Is there no twig you can’t use to beat Obama with, aldiboronti? ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/5 "2017-01-19T20:24:02Z")
Actually, I think it says the exact opposite of what you suggest. It would be trivially easy for President Obama to recite a list of classics that everyone should read. Everyone is familiar with the broad outlines of those books so he could fake familiarity even if he had never read any of them. No one would question his taste if he had suggested only Shakespeare. It takes a well-read person to have an informed opinion about a wide range of contemporary literature and be willing to offer those opinions for scrutiny. He’ll stand behind those books because he knows and loves them. It’s what makes him well-read and erudite. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/6 "2017-01-19T20:31:53Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > One might say Obama is sticking to modern books. I don’t think that’s true, I just think that he has either never read the classics or couldn’t appreciate them when he tried Is this based on anything other than a personal dislike of the man and the people who supported him? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/7 "2017-01-19T20:35:41Z")
How in the hell is Hundred Years of Solitude part of a sad post-literate list? Have you even read it? Do you even know what you’re talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/8 "2017-01-19T20:45:44Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > How in the hell is Hundred Years of Solitude part of a sad post-literate list? Have you even read it? Do you even know what you’re talking about? Your mistake is in thinking this thread is about books instead of a poorly disguised way of saying “Fuck Obama.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/9 "2017-01-19T20:52:39Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Your mistake is in thinking this thread is about books instead of a poorly disguised way of saying “Fuck Obama.” Yeah, I sometimes have problems with answering a thread by taking it at face value. I don’t know what my 11 list would be, but Hundred Years of Solitude has a good shot of being on it, battling it out with Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie) and Master and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov) for my magical realism pick. Hell, maybe I’d even put all three on there (though I probably would have to settle for one to make room for others. In that case, Bulgakov is probably my pick.) At any rate, works for post-literate folks these are not. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/10 "2017-01-19T21:00:41Z")
Cool. I have a few of these on my read list this year anyway…in fact, I finished a book last night and “Three-Body Problem” is sitting at home waiting to be cracked this evening. Probably adding a couple more based on this. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/11 "2017-01-19T21:15:34Z")
Surprised at the absence of 1984, especially on a list from a political figure. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/12 "2017-01-19T22:01:01Z")
As usual, **aldiboronti** gets it all wrong. I read the source–in the _New York Times_. This is apparently a Kindle list he’s given to his daughter–things that “might not surface when she goes to college.” Of course he’s educated & has read the classics. (Has our OP read them all?) > [@](#): > > I would say Shakespeare continues to be a touchstone. Like most teenagers in high school, when we were assigned, I don’t know, “The Tempest” or something, I thought, ‘My God, this is boring.’ And I took this wonderful Shakespeare class in college where I just started to read the tragedies and dig into them. And that, I think, is foundational for me in understanding how certain patterns repeat themselves and play themselves out between human beings. Obama also mentions reading the “Gettysburg Address” (in Lincoln’s handwriting) displayed in the Lincoln bedroom. And many other books & authors who have touched him. We’ll miss him. (Well, we’ll miss having him in the White House. He’s not going away.) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/13 "2017-01-19T22:03:15Z")
_Gone Girl_??? ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/14 "2017-01-19T22:07:26Z")
The OP is pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/15 "2017-01-19T22:12:33Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I suppose it reflects our post-literate age but what a sad list. (And I’m not particularly getting at Obama, Trump’s would have been far worse.) And by amazing coincidence, all by the same author! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/16 "2017-01-19T22:17:01Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > As usual, **aldiboronti** gets it all wrong. I read the source–in the _New York Times_. This is apparently a Kindle list he’s given to his daughter–things that “might not surface when she goes to college.” Of course he’s educated & has read the classics. (Has our OP read them all?) Yeah, digging into the article, I have no idea how they get the headline (clickbait!) from the story they source. It’s just Obama sitting down with a New York Times book critic talking about literature. It’s not even clear to me that all those books are on the Kindle he gave to his daughter. Four of them definitely are, but the others on the list just seem to be books mentioned in the interview as answers to various questions. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/17 "2017-01-19T22:43:35Z")
And I take issue with the belief that the _Iliad_ is obviously better to read than, say, _Song of Solomon_. Both are great literature. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/18 "2017-01-19T23:21:02Z")
That is a surprisingly good list, which points up some great works that are usually overlooked. I’d say that _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ is the equal of any book in the traditional pantheon and _Song of Solomon_ is better than quite a few “classic” novels. I also think his focus is on newer works; the idea that literature stopped being good after the 19th century is nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/19 "2017-01-20T00:01:19Z")
I’d venture to say the Obama is far more literate and widely read than the OP, based on the OP’s half-assed attempt to denigrate the guy. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570/20 "2017-01-20T00:03:52Z")
I’d’ve pegged Obama as a Catch-22 fan given his relationship with the conservatives [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-books-president-obama-thinks-everyone-should-read/777570.md?page=2)