Obama | Thornfield Hall

Every year American readers look forward to Obama’s Favorite Books of the Year list.

A savvy politician, writer, and avid reader, Obama is the only literary president of the twenty-first century. We have heard nothing of Biden’s, Trump’s, or George W. Bush’s reading. During Obama’s presidency he showed his passion for literature by buying books on Small Business Saturday at Politics and Prose, a D.C. bookstore, and posting his Favorite Books of the Summer and Favorite Books of the Year lists.

Perhaps our last literary president was Jimmy Carter, a writer of novels, memoirs, and nonfiction who loved Dylan Thomas’s poetry and sent a fan letter to Erica Jong. (The latter makes sense: he told Playboy that he lusted in his heart.)

As usual, Obama’s Favorite Books list is inspiring. We have read three on the list: Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know, and Susan Choi’s Flashlight.

Some Obama fans are over-the-top. Eric Anderson of the Lonesome Reader vlog gushed about Obama’s “charming” book list tradition and suggested that Obama should be a Booker Prize judge.

“Is he saying he’s going to make this happen?” someone asked from the couch.

I’m Bookered-out this time of year. A great longlist and shortlist in 2025 – but I don’t want to think about it again till next summer. Of course Eric has always been Booker-crazy – he even films the award ceremonies. He does a good job.

Would Obama make a great Booker judge? Yes, of course. This year Sarah Jessica Parker, next year Obama – great for the Booker Prize. Great PR! Perhaps not that much fun for Obama, though. Roddy Doyle said they had to sift through a lot of very bad books.

We’ll see what happens.

Here is Obama’s Favorite Books of 2025 list.