At a visit to a neighborhood library in the Anacostia area of Washington DC, Obama told a group of young students what books he was reading when he was their age.
The President said he love the Hardy Boys series, “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as other adventure type books. He added that he is “still a big Dr. Seuss fan.”
Saying that he loves “traditional books,” he explained that e-books are certainly valuable for their convenient nature.
When Obama was in high school his taste in books developed further. He read more classics and enjoyed them, such as “Of Mice and Men” and “The Great Gatsby.”
President Obama has a reputation for being a “bookworm.” It is well known that he has taken his daughters to purchase gifts at two of Washington’s more famous independent bookstores, Kramerbooks and Politics and Prose. His book choices were recorded in well-circulated media reports.
He has previously stated that in recent years his favorite books have been “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson and “Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison. On the President’s Facebook page he adds to these two favorites “Moby Dick” by Melville and the tragedies of Shakespeare. He also lists a non-fiction book by Taylor Branck, “Parting the Waters” about Martin Luther King, Jr. Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead,” Lincoln’s collected writings, and the Bible.