“Obama’s Secret to Surviving the White House”

In the January 16, 2017 edition of the New York Times, President Obama discusses with Michiko Kakutani his life-long love of books and what reading has meant to him throughout the eight years of his presidency.

Especially interesting is his wide-ranging taste in both fiction and non-fiction–from Lincoln, to Gandhi to Chinese writer Liu Cixin to his last read “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead.

As a president he faced a constant barrage of information.  Reading, he said, helped him to “slow down and get perspective” and gave him “the ability to get in somebody else’s shoes.”