Does Anybody Know What Books Biden Reads? Or If He Reads?
Time was when the elite media class obsessed over how many and what books presidents read. But since President Joe Biden took office, they’ve completely lost interest. Do they know something we don’t?
Before Biden, the press loved to ask presidents about their favorite books. What’s on their nightstand? What are they reading on vacation? It has always been treated as a sign of intelligence. A measure of sophistication.
The Daily Beast once compared presidential reading habits to how historians ranked them as presidents. “The results are not surprising—the top-ranked presidents all made our list near the top of presidential readers,” it reported.
The press lavished praise on Barack Obama and Bill Clinton for their book-reading habits. When Clinton was running in 1992, for example, the New York Times reported glowingly that he was “an omnivorous reader.” Obama’s summer reading list was treated as front-page news.
This fixation on presidents’ literary habits usually comes out strongest when a Republican is president as a way to prove they’re dumb.
When George W. Bush was running for president, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that “just how much Bush hits the books — or doesn’t — has suddenly become a campaign issue.”
Trump was routinely attacked for his lack of interest in books.
The Atlantic ran a lengthy piece — “The President Who Doesn’t Read” — that began: “Trump’s allergy to the written word and his reliance on oral communication have proven liabilities in office.”
The Washington Post ran a feature on “Who are the best-read presidents in history?” as a way to contrast Trump’s reading habits with other presidents.
The Hill ran a story with the snarky headline: “Trump’s favorite books? His own.”
GQ said “Is it shocking that Donald Trump doesn’t like books? Of course not. But that doesn’t mean it’s not horrifying.”
The Columbia Journalism Review lamented “the election of a president with zero apparent interest in books,” but said that this “seems to have inspired a surge in reading nationwide.”
So, out of curiosity, we looked for articles about Biden’s reading habits. And found almost nothing, except articles in book-lovers websites.
During the 2020 primaries, for example, Book Riot asked all the Democratic candidates to list their favorite books. Most of them responded. Even Kamala Harris was able to name five. But Biden?
“Biden’s team never responded to numerous inquiries and followups about his favorite/most influential books. There’s very little readily available about Biden’s favorite books,” it noted.
In 2021, Early Bird Books went on a “quest to figure out which books are on the president’s nightstand.” It came up empty-handed.
In the mainstream press? Bupkus. That’s despite the fact that reporters covering Biden have plenty of reasons to ask. After all, he has spent more time on vacation than any president in history. You’d think someone would have pressed him to name a book he’s reading on the beach.
We have a good idea why they don’t. They probably know that Biden doesn’t read books because Biden is … what’s the word for it?… stupid.
This is a guy who once bragged that he was the only one in his law school “on a full academic scholarship” and “ended up in the top half of my class.” He also claimed that he “graduated with three degrees from undergraduate school.”
Politifact later reported that Biden didn’t get any academic scholarship, but a partial needs-based one. He didn’t graduate in the top half of his class, but in the bottom 10. And he didn’t get three undergraduate degrees. Only an idiot would lie about something so easily checked as academic accomplishments.
We know Biden can read. After all, he’s always reading the instructions in the teleprompter — like “make it clear” and “repeat the line.”
So, here’s a challenge for all those bulldog reporters who were once obsessed with presidential reading habits. If reading is fundamental to being a good president, start demanding that Biden name a book on his nightstand. Or one he’s read in the past year. Or the past decade.
We dare you.
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