A few months ago, Katie Couric asked the candidates what was currently on their nightstand, and then Bill Moyers asked Americans to share what titles they believed our next President should be reading.
Now, the New York Times has asked the same question to a wide variety of writers. Here is a small sampling of responses:
Junot Diaz (current Pulitzer prize winner):
- McCain: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
- Clinton: Black Dog of Fate by Peter Balakian
- Obama: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
- All three candidates should read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, any book about the Swedish warship Vasa, and Eisenhower’s memoirs Mandate for Change.
- All three candidates should read An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, Deep Economy by Bill McKibben, Getting a Grip by Frances Moore Lappe, Future of Life by E.O. Wilson, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, and any novel by Wendell Berry.
- Obama: The Prince by Machiavelli
- McCain: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- Clinton: Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
- Obama: the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham
- Clinton: Macbeth by Shakespeare
- McCain: Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn by Evan S. Connell
Click here to read the entire article or here to see what the readers of Paper Cuts (the NYT’s blog) suggested…
Or suggest your own titles in the comments below!
