Obama buys books on Small Business Saturday

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama stocked up on more than 20 books Saturday in a rare stop at a local bookstore, part of an effort to support small businesses.

The president’s visit the day after Black Friday to Politics & Prose, a Washington landmark, was timed to Small Business Saturday, but will likely pique more interest for sparking a regular political ritual — picking apart the president’s book choices.

As a window into what the leader of the free world is thinking, the chief executive’s reading list has long been the subject of armchair analysis. President George W. Bush made headlines and sparked speculation, for example, when he told reporters he was reading Albert Camus’ existentialist novel “The Stranger” in 2006, a low point in his second term.

No reader aside from Oprah Winfrey can create more buzz for a new book. When the White House announced several years ago that Obama was reading Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom” on his vacation, even before its release, booksellers faced angry customers demanding the much-anticipated novel. (Obama had been given an early copy.)

This year the president did not play along with those ready to dissect his beach reads. With his two daughters away at summer camp for part of his summer vacation, the president and first lady did not swing by their favorite bookstore during their getaway to Martha’s Vineyard.

Obama made up for that missed visit on Saturday. The president bought 21 books in about 30 minutes, most of which was dedicated to chatting with other customers.

His long and eclectic list makes it difficult to find a common theme, much less offer some insight into his state of mind at a particularly troubled moment in his second term.

Nearly half the books are written for children or young adults, and are presumably for his daughters Malia, 15, and Sasha, 12. Or maybe not. He’s following Winfrey to Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.” The memoir of a woman’s emotional trek was Winfrey’s first selection when she rebooted her book club.