As Barack Obama takes his oath today as the 44th President of the United States, the burden of all the monumental expectations placed squarely on his shoulders will be heavy indeed. But he has already started a small change, and hopefully a lasting one, by virtue of his well-publicized love of books and the resulting interest it's generated in some titles already. Although he isn't the first President to have an effect on reading and book sales, the New York Times was impressed enough to ask if Obama was the new Oprah, a sentiment shared by NPR, which called him a "new force in publishing."
The Rap Sheet also took up the discussion, pointing out that some presidents have done more to promote reading than others, although Obama might want to consider grabbing a crime novel for "some lighter relief" after all the heavy reading he's been doing. The Hawaiian Eye blog offered up a few suggestions, titles like Hard Revolution by George Pelecanos and Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. And if the new President wants to sit down with mysteries featuring U.S. Presidents or presidential candidates, he can always check out this list offered up by Janet Reid at Mystery Fanfare.
It appears that President Obama has taken to heart the words of Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry, that "Reading builds the educated and informed electorate so vital to our democracy." Otherwise, we may wind up as Ray Bradbury foresaw, that "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."
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