What is Obama Reading?

Say what you will about George W. Bush: The guy liked to read, regularly devouring massive biographies of Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon Johnson and other public figures who, coincidentally, all had in common the fact that they had to make tough decisions while in office. As president, Bush even picked up a novel on occasion, including The Stranger by Albert Camus—prompting many reporters, including this one, to wonder, “Hmm.”

So far, reading du jour for President Obama has been thick briefing books. But everyone needs an escape. Over the weekend, we learned from his interview with the New York Times that Obama recently started reading Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland, a novel about a recently emigrated Dutch banker in post-9/11 New York who copes with marital strife by playing cricket. (That’s more culture than what his Secretary of State has been getting lately. In another piece published in the Times this weekend, Hillary Clinton says she hasn’t watched any movies or read any books in the last three months.) Here's what your Gaggler is wondering: Is Obama's reading list as powerful as an Oprah book club endorsement? We couldn't help but notice that Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Abraham Lincoln, has seen a surge in sales since Obama cited it as one of his favorites during the campaign.