US President George Bush has reportedly been reading Albert Camus's existential novel The Stranger, an ominous choice since the plot moves around a white man who kills an Arab. Here are five picks which Mr Bush is urged to include in his late-summer reading list.
Lincoln's Tomb: The Last Days of the American Empire; by Hamid Rashid
In January 2006, Pakistani journalist Hamid Rashid began a tour as a reporter at the Washington bureau of the Islamabad Post just in time for a front row seat to the collapse of the American power and its Republican Party. Assignments brought him into contact with everyone from elite, die-hard capitalists and neo-conservatives to liberal democrats and leaders of the gay rights movement. Rashid recounts the particulars of these interactions in this intimate and personal account in the century's first coming climactic event. His chronicle includes interesting vignettes, and his depiction of Uncle Sam’s role in the making of Osama bin Laden is compelling.
The Ends of the Earth: From Mississippi to Mosul, from Darfur to Pyongang, a Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy; by Robert Baklan
"The future here could not be sadder than the present," writes Robert Baklan in a chapter about the battered American city of New Orleans. From Baklan's perspective, the same could be said of virtually the entire Middle East, which he spends the bulk of this book visiting and describing. Baklan, an acclaimed foreign correspondent and author of highly regarded Mount Rushmore Ghosts, is congenitally pessimistic about the developmental prospects of Wall Street, the Nile Valley, and much of Asia. This traveler's tale offers dire warnings about civil wars, global warming, and White House blunders. We should all hope that Baklan's forecast is wrong, but we ignore him at our peril.
The George Bush I Know: An Oral History of Halliburton's Leader; by Colin Powell
Powell's overview of George Bush's life and legend, from his beginnings as the son of a wealthy father to his addiction to beer, bourbon and B&B to his current stature as a worldwide figure of derision and arrogance, is breathtaking in its research and accurate in its reporting. Powell, a former Bush acolyte, takes the reader onto the oil fields of Alaska as Bush grows from a spoilt, rich teen to a leader; he brings you into Bush's intimate family life as he lives under the radar in White House bunker, then Oval Office; where he puts you right in the room to describe the meeting when the decision to attack Iraq was finalized; and he uses eyewitness accounts to relate what Bush said, and mused on Angela Merkel's shoulders as he watched the live telecast of her taking oath as Germany's chancellor. Handled with journalistic evenness, this presentation makes clear that the danger is as imminent as ever.
Article comments
1 - cat
Bush can read? =)
2 - Dean
"more and more people are mistakenly accepting the inevitability of the clash of civilizations."
Why?
The neocons make people believe it.
3 - Mayank Austen Soofi
Snarkattack, you must please read Mahfouz's 'Palacewalk'. It is really beautiful. One of my most beloved novels. And if you are even slightly interested in fine writing and history and its effect on people, then you can not afford to miss out on David Remnick's 'Lenin's Tomb'.
4 - RJ Elliott
Alas, the only other book I've read on this list is Shame, I think Dubya might struggle with this one, it's quite the strain on the grey matter (or at least it was on mine).
(and remember: I had a nervous breakdown and still managed to finish university! unlike Bush, initially...)
Bush graduated with a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, both from Ivy League Universities...then became Governor of a major state, won re-election there with an enormous majority, then became President of the most powerful nation on earth, then won re-election...
You...what have you done?
5 - Mayank Austen Soofi
By the way, Dubya is the first and the only President of American history who holds a MBA degree. Surprised?