Although I’m not a big fan of politicians, I’ve always kinda, sorta liked Bill Clinton.
He’s always seemed like an approachable guy who would be easy to talk to, play a round a golf with, and drink a pint at a bar.
Not that this is any surprise, but he’s well read too, which makes him even more likeable. He’s a smart dude.
In 2003, CBS listed Clinton’s 21 favorite books—all on display at the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. The list is interesting and diverse:
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
- The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker.
- Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 by Taylor Branch.
- Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
- Lincoln by David Herbert Donald.
- The Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot.
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
- The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-First Century by David Fromkin.
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
- The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes by Seamus Heaney.
- King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild.
- The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.
- Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell.
- The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis by Carroll Quigley.
- Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics by Reinhold Niebuhr.
- The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron.
- Politics as a Vocation by Max Weber.
- You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe.
- Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright.
- The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats by William Butler Yeats.
Great books there, Mr. President.
You might notice that the current novel I’m reading—The Confessions of Nat Turner—is on Clinton’s list, as well as Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
But come on: He listed Hillary’s biography Living History on there. I think he’s still trying to make up for past wrongs, if you know what I mean. So I guess if your wife writes a biography, you’ve got to list it as one of your favorite books.
Any thoughts on Bill’s favorites?
Source: CBS
