Books & The White House

Carlin Romano writing in the Phildelphia Enquirer

With a true reader-in-chief now ensconced in the White House, reading books - and reading about them - may become the coolest thing since staring endlessly at a cell phone.

The January/February issue of Washington Monthly, getting into the literate spirit of the new administration, presents 25 writers and thinkers recommending books that President Obama should read, from 100-year-old Jacques Barzun promoting William James' classic The Will to Believe to Princeton dean Anne-Marie Slaughter flagging the brand-new Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.

We doubt the leader of the free world will have time to check out our picks for some of this season's notable new arrivals, but here's an edifying baker's dozen just in case.