Clinton's list of favorite books.

[Silicon]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=529&ncid=529&e=5&u=/ap/20031121/ap_en_ot/clinton_s_books_1


In this list are such titles as:

"The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-First Century,"
David Fromkin.

"The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes," Seamus Heaney.

"The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis," Carroll
Quigley.

"Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics," Reinhold
Niebuhr.






Can we expect George W. Bush to offer a similar list?


"The Cat in the Hat," by Dr. Seuss


"Captain Underpants And The Big, Bad Battle Of The Bionic Booger Boy, Part 2: Revenge Of The Ridiculous Robo-Boogers'" by Dav Pilkey

"Treason," Ann Coulter

"George Orwell's 1984" Cliff Notes edition with tear out book report.

"Duh Bible", the book-on-tape Bible as read by Mortimer Snerd.

[Nikk]

I bet Clinton wouldn't have come out with a highbrow list of favourites like this when he was running for president for the first time.

[LFTKBS]

Originally posted by Nikk
I bet Clinton wouldn't have come out with a highbrow list of favourites like this when he was running for president for the first time.

Yeah, those Rhodes scholars sure do love them some Danielle Steel novels! Sooo-eeee!

[RCNelson]

Silicon:
Can we expect George W. Bush to offer a similar list?

"The Cat in the Hat," by Dr. Seuss He won't read the book, he'll just see the movie.

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by RCNelson
He won't read the book, he'll just see the movie.

the movie would be too highbrow for him.

[Iconoclast]

I'd have assumed "Girls of Hustler Vol 5" would have been on Clinton's list.

[Silicon]

I notice that Clinton didn't weasel out and put the Bible on his list.



Girls of Hustler Vol 5 is for another exhibition:


"America Submits: A Collection of Books and items hidden in the nightstand, under the mattress and in the bottom drawer of the Oval Office Desk during the Clinton Presidency."

[Nikk]

Originally posted by Silicon


I notice that Clinton didn't weasel out and put the Bible on his list.




"The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas à Kempis ( one of the titles ) is an intellectually upmarket nod in this direction. It has the advantage that it doesn't concern itself much as far as I can remember with the nonsense in the Old Testament.

I never really considered it to be unputdownable myself.

[UnrepentantSinner]

Originally posted by Iconoclast
I'd have assumed "Girls of Hustler Vol 5" would have been on Clinton's list.

Great joke I heard once.

A comedian goes up to a street vendor newstand and asks, "Do you have Milton's Paradise Lost?" When the vendor says no, he replies, "O.k. give me a Huslter."

I will mention that I'm disappointed that there's no Sagan, Asimov, Burke or Desmond Morris on his list.

[Vorticity]

Originally posted by Silicon
Can we expect George W. Bush to offer a similar list?


"The Cat in the Hat," by Dr. Seuss


"Captain Underpants And The Big, Bad Battle Of The Bionic Booger Boy, Part 2: Revenge Of The Ridiculous Robo-Boogers'" by Dav Pilkey

"Treason," Ann Coulter

"George Orwell's 1984" Cliff Notes edition with tear out book report.

"Duh Bible", the book-on-tape Bible as read by Mortimer Snerd.
Actually, I think it does Suess' "Cat in the Hat" a disservice to include it on that list. If I were Clinton or Bush, I'd be proud to put it on my list of favorite books.

[Supercharts]

"Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics," Reinhold Niebuhr.

He must have read it backwards.
;)

[WildCat]

This list can't be accurate, Penthouse Letters is nowhere on it.

I'd love to give a quiz to Clinton on these books, I'd bet he hasn't read any of them. This list looks like the books many people put on their shelves to impress visitors, but have never been opened. His PR people probably put that together to publicize his library.

Bill's too busy gettin' some to have time for books. ;)

[Tricky]

Originally posted by WildCat
This list can't be accurate, Penthouse Letters is nowhere on it.

I'd love to give a quiz to Clinton on these books, I'd bet he hasn't read any of them. This list looks like the books many people put on their shelves to impress visitors, but have never been opened. His PR people probably put that together to publicize his library.

Bill's too busy gettin' some to have time for books. ;)
Bill is very well educated and obviously reads quite a bit. No you can't tell if one of his books has been read or not. With Bush it is easier. The ones that haven't been colored in are the ones he hasn't read. :p

[Silicon]

That's the thing about those Rhodes Scholars, WildCat, they never read books, they just put them on the shelves to impress people.



Yes, I too am proud to have The Cat in the Hat on my bookshelf.

Though my copy is in Latin.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/086516472X/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-3183352-8116037#reader-page

[Luciana]

Clinton once expressed his admiration for Paulo Coelho, that author who writes about spiritual guidance, has plagiarized every "1001 Nights", has a horrid prose and claims to be able to make rain. He said he had read all of Paulo Coelho's book. I know because it was headline news in Brazil.

Well, maybe his taste for fiction isn't that sophisticated...

[Cain]

Homage to Catalonia is a good choice. Most educated people have read 1984 or Animal Farm at one time or another. Choosing Orwell's most personal book suggests depth, and it's supposed to impress us.

I don't understand why he included Robert Wright's book. From the reviews I've seen it didn't seem too interesting. It may have contained an "anthropic principle"-type argument for God as well (though I am not sure).

At least Clinton probably wouldn't select Jesus Christ as his favorite philosopher.

[shuize]

Originally posted by Cain
Homage to Catalonia is a good choice. Most educated people have read 1984 or Animal Farm at one time or another. Choosing Orwell's most personal book suggests depth, and it's supposed to impress us....

I just bought that book. It was a quick read but it taught me a fair bit about the Spanish Civil War. Too bad it's on Clinton's list. Now I'll have to burn it.

[Garrette]

I imagine Rhodes Scholars are as prone as anyone to padding their lists to look better, perhaps more so as they may assume they have an image to uphold.

Yet it's entirely possible that Clinton has read all these books and they really are his favorites.

What depresses me is the inclusion of Maya Angelou whom I rank among the most overrated of poets.

Eliot is a good choice, though.

[BTox]

I am skeptical that a person who doesn't know what the meaning of the word "is" is has read any of those books.

[arcticpenguin]

Originally posted by BTox
I am skeptical that a person who doesn't know what the meaning of the word "is" is has read any of those books.
Oh, he knows the meaning of the word "is". He just wants to know which definition will be used in a given situation.

[BTox]

Yes, there are so many different definitions of the word "is". I can see how he gets confused...

[Attrayant]

I thought you were joshing me but the dictionary certainly backs you up on that.

16 entries found for is (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=is).