President Obama talked about what books mean to him, and as usual he only has wise words

Part of the reason we’re going to miss Barak Obama as President isn’t only because of what he’s achieved in office, but because the man, like us, is an avid reader, and now Obama has opened up about what books mean to him, and it’s full of literary wisdom.

We know that the President is a voracious reader, mainly due to his yearly summer reading lists, which this year featured the The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, which was also selected for Oprah’s book club, too. Heck, he can even name the characters that have died in Game of Thrones.

Now Obama has spoken about the impact that books and literature has had on him, and it’s so powerful.

Given that Obama is also a prolific writer, too, what he said about wanting to write is so inspirational.

"I loved reading when I was a kid, partly because I was traveling so much, and there were times where I’d be displaced, I’d be the outsider. When I first moved to Indonesia, I’m this big, dark-skinned kid that kind of stood out. And then when I moved back from Indonesia to Hawaii, I had the manners and habits probably of an Indonesian kid," he explained. "And so the idea of having these worlds that were portable, that were yours, that you could enter into, was appealing to me. And then I became a teenager and wasn’t reading that much other than what was assigned in school, and playing basketball and chasing girls, and imbibing things that weren’t very healthy."

Speaking about how he re-discovered reading and writing in his second year at college, something he discusses in his book Dreams From My Father, Obama opened up about how he became “hermetic” and how he was always either reading or writing. However, he says, writing was an important part of shaping his identity.

"For me, particularly at that time, writing was the way I sorted through a lot of crosscurrents in my life — race, class, family. And I genuinely believe that it was part of the way in which I was able to integrate all these pieces of myself into something relatively whole," he revealed. "People now remark on this notion of me being very cool, or composed. And what is true is that I generally have a pretty good sense of place and who I am, and what’s important to me. And I trace a lot of that back to that process of writing."

Unfortunately, Obama said, he hasn’t managed to do as much writing as he would have liked during his tenure as President outside of speech writing due to being so darn busy. He did say, however, that he uses thrillers and science fiction to escape the world sometimes, and that Shakespeare was a “touchstone” for him during his presidency.

What’s more, Obama doesn’t worry about the future of the novel in the uncertain times of technological advancement.

"We’re a storytelling species," he said. "What holds us together is an idea, and it’s a story about who we are and what’s important to us. And I want to make sure that we continue that."

We couldn’t agree more! You can read Obama’s full discussion about books, writing, and literature on The New York Times.