Posted on 11/29/2003 11:43:40 AM PST by Helms
Bill Clinton's 21 Favorite Books
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Nov. 21, 2003
(Photo: AP)
Clinton's presidential library is to open next November on the south bank of the Arkansas River in downtown Little Rock.
City, county and state officials, right, tour the Clinton Library building under construction in Little Rock, Ark. (Photo: AP)
(AP) Ah, nothing like curling up in front of the fireplace with 21 of former President Bill Clinton's favorite books.
To coincide with the opening of a Clinton Library-related exhibit of books and gifts he received while president, Clinton has released a list of his 21 favorite books from his wife's "Living History" to Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" to Thomas a Kempis' "The Imitation of Christ."
Clinton's presidential library is to open next November on the south bank of the Arkansas River in downtown Little Rock. A nearby office building, the Cox Creative Center, has hosted a number of preview exhibits, and on Monday opens "America Presents: A Collection of Books and Gifts of the Clinton Presidency." The exhibit runs through Jan. 3, 2004.
Copies of Clinton's 21 favorite books will be on display at the Cox building.
Besides Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's autobiography, Ellison's soaring novel of a black man's journey through white America and Kempis' 15th-century treatise on Christian living, other books of note include Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and Thomas Wolfe's "You Can't Go Home Again."
The entire list of Clinton's favorite books, listed alphabetically by author:
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Maya Angelou.
"Meditations," Marcus Aurelius.
"The Denial of Death," Ernest Becker.
"Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963," Taylor Branch.
"Living History," Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"Lincoln," David Herbert Donald.
"The Four Quartets," T.S. Eliot.
"Invisible Man," Ralph Ellison.
"The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-First Century," David Fromkin.
"One Hundred Years of Solitude," Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
"The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes," Seamus Heaney.
"King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa," Adam Hochschild.
"The Imitation of Christ," Thomas a Kempis.
"Homage to Catalonia," George Orwell.
"The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis," Carroll Quigley.
"Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics," Reinhold Niebuhr.
"The Confessions of Nat Turner," William Styron.
"Politics as a Vocation," Max Weber.
"You Can't Go Home Again," Thomas Wolfe.
"Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny," Robert Wright.
"The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats," William Butler Yeats.
apropos..
..and his number one mostest favoritest book..
Adventures on the BangBoat
Huh? Clearly? Explain.
Huh? Clearly? Explain.
I have heard that when Clinton was going to have an expert in some field meet him at the White House, he would often spend the preceding week reading a large stack of books on the subject and would then surprise his guest with the depth of his knowledge.
Also, it does not seem plausible that he would have been able to attend Yale Law School, be a Rhodes scholar, or teach law at the University of Arkansas if he had never read a book.
Even his detractors admit that Clinton is a very bright guy. Of course none of this has much to do with his moral qualities.
I've probably read more books on that list than he has. Most of them are so goddamned boring, you start praying for a pistol to chew on.
But he probably liked the movie better.
EVERYBODY says they read this. In fact, I've rarely been a guest in anyone's home who doesn't have a copy of it. WE have a copy of it. EVERYBODY has a copy of it. My husband bought it years ago....I doubt he has ever read it. I had to read it in SPANISH in one of my college classes. I thought I was going to DIE from boredom. It was like a bad acid trip or an Hieronymous Bosch painting. Flying carpets? Women pregnant with lizards? BITE me.
1. Even Ken Starr said that he wished he were as smart as Clinton. I think this was in reference to Clinton having been able to easily absorb all the material in law school. Apparently Clinton never needed to study as hard as other people because he is unusually smart.
2. As I recall, prior to his becoming President, Clinton attended a lot of meetings with other governors and politicians where he surprised everyone with the depth of his investigation of various policy issues. He was known as a "policy wonk". Whether or not you agree with his proposed solutions to these problems, or the possible slant of his reading, the other attendees felt that he had done a lot of reading on these issues.
3. It's also been noted that he has an excellent long-term memory.
I simply cannot imagine a relaxed, intelligent conversation with the guy about any of these books.
4. Roger Ebert once had a show where he discussed films with Clinton. Clinton was able to have a relaxed intelligent conversation about all these movies. It was a little shocking that he had had time to see them while he was President. Ebert was surprised at the depth of Clinton's knowledge of films.
5. Apparently he was able to concentrate enough to learn how to play the saxophone quite well.
He has a brightness of a shameless street hustler.
So? A lot of street hustlers are very smart. Neither of us has had an opportunity to discuss literature with Clinton, but his self-centeredness and lack of morality does not preclude his having read many books.
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