Accidental Blogger

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In a comment to a previous post, I wondered about George Bush’s reading habits or even whether he has one. If we are to believe White House presidential aides, Bush is a regular book worm and an erudite one at that. The presidential reading list put out for public consumption is impressive and eclectic – lots of biographies, some baseball, a couple of great epidemics and even a glimpse into the world of Muslim women .  Here are the titles of some books that G.W.B. has purportedly burnt the midnight oil reading. 

• Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky
• American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin (a biography of Robert Oppenheimer, an inventor of the atomic bomb)
• Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss (about the late all-star Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder)
• Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard Carwardine
• Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural by Ronald C. White Jr.
• Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday
• Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks
• Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky (discussing how polio affected the United States in the mid-20th century)
• The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth by Leigh Montville
• The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry
• Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
• The Stranger by Albert Camus

Very interesting — if true. We have heard that Bush exercises for 3-4 uninterrupted hours daily and goes to sleep by 9pm. In between he runs the country (also Iraq and Afghanistan) and goes on campaign trips. I find it hard to believe that he reads much. Or may be he is a speed reader. But the most important reason why I think that he hasn’t read the above books or too many others for that matter, is when I hear something like this: (I heard this on the NBC News with Brian Williams – October 23, 2006)

"President Bush said he sometimes uses Google’s satellite mapping program to transport him back to his ranch in Crawford, Texas.  In a CNBC interview with Maria Bartiromo, Bush was asked a question on many of our minds: “I’m curious, have you ever Googled anybody? Do you use Google?”

According to CNBC’s unofficial transcript, he replied: “Occasionally. One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps. It’s very interesting to see that. I forgot the name of the program, but you get the satellite and you can — like, I kind of like to look at the ranch on Google, reminds me of where I want to be sometimes. Yeah, I do it some.” He added: “I tend not to email or — not only tend not to email, I don’t email, because of the different record requests that can happen to a president. I don’t want to receive emails because, you know, there’s no telling what somebody’s email may — it would show up as, you know, a part of some kind of a story, and I wouldn’t be able to say, `Well, I didn’t read the email.’ `But I sent it to your address, how can you say you didn’t?’ So, in other words, I’m very cautious about emailing.”

I had heard that Bush does not read newspapers but likes to get his news "unfiltered" from his official advisors. We are told that he only watches the Weather Channel and baseball on TV. No news, no commentary -just the weather (I wonder what he was watching during Katrina) and sports.  Now he reveals that he uses the internet to look at the Google map of his ranch in Crawford and not much else. Why would anyone spend time staring at the map of one’s place of residence as a pastime?  More likely, "Uncurious George" uses Google to search for the next easy place to bomb.