The Obama family’s book consumption is in the news. Obama’s own vacation reading list is still highly classified, but:
It was unclear which books Obama ultimately purchased at Bunch of Grapes, but “Brave New World” was most likely for his 13-year-old daughter, Malia. The book is required reading for eighth-grade students at Sidwell Friends School, where she attends.
Huh. I’m trying to remember when I read Brave New World. Seems like it was my junior year in high school. But no. That can’t be right. Junior year was American Lit. Must have been senior year.
Anyway: high school, at any rate. And it seems like a high school kind of book to me. But not anymore, I guess. Just goes to show how advanced kids are these days compared to the benighted era I grew up in.
In other news, I’m sort of shocked to see that I’ve read 8 of the 24 books that Obama is known to have read since he was inaugurated. I thought he had better taste than that. I remember once seeing a list of 50 or a hundred books that Bill Clinton had plowed through in the previous week (or whatever) and finding only one or two that I’d read. Obama is slumming.
