Politics aside, I like for my president to be a big reader. That trait gives us something important in common. A reading president also has learned a few valuable things that, hopefully, will serve him (or, perhaps in the near future, her) well.

We all know the story of how President Reagan gave Tom Clancy his start as an author by reading The Hunt for the Red October and giving it a plug. Later, in 1992, presidential candidate Bill Clinton said Walter Mosley was his favorite author, and the deserving Mr. Mosley's literary career was launched.

Barak Obama is also a READING president. He wrote book reviews for the Chicago Tribune. From googling, I found his favorite book is Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Me, too (although I like The Sun Also Rises more). He also liked Team of Rivals by the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. I haven't read that Goodwin title yet. Have you?

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Definitely recommend you take a fictional journey to Lake Charles."
Elizabeth A. White's Musings of an All Purpose Monkey