What books do the 3 candidates that are left read?

[rurallib]

Is this a subject that anyone has covered? The reason that I am curious is that it seems that our best presidents seem to be voracious readers. And among their favorite subjects seem to be history and current political thought.
As evidence I cite JFK, Harry Truman (who I think I remember read Plutarch's Lives multiple times), Bill Clinton and I believe FDR as those who read incessantly. I think Clinton would read a book a day.
I believe Eisenhower was also a big time reader
On the opposing side I give you 41 and 43. Remember a couple years ago when 43 tried to convince people he was reading Shakespeare. Don't remember much about Reagan reading. Stories usually had him watching TV every night.
Reaching back we can cite Lincoln, Jefferson and Madison as bigtime readers.
My point is that reading obviously broadens perspective and gives insights.

[leftofcool]

1. I suspect that Hillary

reads a great deal of history, poly-sci, some philosophy, the classics, bios, and I bet she dabbles just a bit in some best selling sci-fi/fantasy.

[rurallib]

3. My suspicion is that BHO and HRC are readers and

McCain is a TV watcher - probably mostly Fox News.

[book_worm]

2. I don't know about Obama and Clinton but I hear McCain is reading

"My Pet Goat" sent to him by George W. Bush with a note saying "It's urgent reading expecially in times of crisis."

[undeterred]

4. No one finished Bill Clintons book, not even Hillary

McCain said it was torture, and Obama thought it was audacious.

[ensho]

5. they have time to read?

nt

[rurallib]

6. Bill Clinton even as pres would read a book a day

I believe JFK did also. I know it is hard to believe.

[Tribetime]

7. McCain can't read the teleprompter

[LiberalAndProud]

10. *snort*

sad but true.

[NYCGirl]

8. From NY Magazine's "2008 Electopedia", the Candidates' Book Preferences

Clinton: Charter Member, Oprah's Book Club
Clinton has described her reading tastes as "eclectic — from biography to mystery to the classics." In the July/August 2000 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, Clinton revealed her favorite books of all time, listing number one as The Return of the Prodigal Son, which Clinton says is "about how our heavenly Father, God, loves us despite our shortcomings and failings." Her other front-runners feature memorable heroines: Little Women, The Poisonwood Bible, The Joy Luck Club, The Color Purple, The Clan of the Cave Bear, and West With the Night. Her favorite children's book is Goodnight Moon. When the AP asked Clinton about the last book of fiction she'd read, she answered Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It is nonfiction, about Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet.

Obama: Doctorow and Shakespeare
According to his Facebook page, Obama's favorite works are Song of Solomon, Moby Dick, Shakespeare's tragedies, Parting the Waters, Gilead, “Self-Reliance,” and the Bible. When asked in an interview which books had touched his life, he cited the “wonderful book” Gandhi’s Truth, by Erik Erikson. E.L. Doctorow and William Shakespeare are his favorite authors. As a high schooler seeking to clarify his own racial identity, Obama looked for answers in the works of James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and W.E.B. Du Bois. He also read The Autobiography of Malcolm X at that time, a book now conspicuously absent from his reading lists.

McCain: It Tolls for He
When he returned from Hanoi, McCain began to patch the holes in his education rendered by five years in a prison cell. A voracious reader ever since, he is fondest of war stories. He enjoys The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and All Quiet on the Western Front, but his all-time favorite is Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. The main character’s last words—“The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it”—inspired the title for McCain's 2002 memoir, Worth Fighting For. McCain is infatuated with Hemingway’s doomed anti-Fascist hero. “There is nobody I’d rather be than Robert Jordan,” he once told the Arizona Daily Star

http://nymag.com/news/politics/encyclopedia/books/

[walldude]

9. Last time I heard a candidate talk about books

Bush was reading the biography of Alexander the Great. :rofl: :rofl:

Politicians lie enough, I don't need to listen to them try to figure out what book they could claim they are reading to try to get more votes..

[LisaM]

11. Clinton only lists one book by a male writer, Obama and McCain no women writers

I would prefer that all of them read a stronger mix.

I often read a book a day.