The Tin Man

The President’s House II

I finally finished reading The President’s House on Thursday. It’s a comprehensive two-volume history of the White House, 1,231 pages long, from the building of the house through the present; the Clinton and Bush II years are covered in an epilogue, because most of their administrations’ papers haven’t been released yet. I bought it the day after Christmas and started reading it over the holidays. Every workday from the beginning of the New Year until last week, I lugged the first volume, and then the second, back and forth with me on the subway and train to and from work.

I know so much more about the house, the presidents and their families than I did when I first started. Fascinating stuff.

And now I have to find a new book to read on my commute. Until I do, I’m catching up on my New Yorkers.

2 comments

1 Esther 3/02/09 at 9:46 PM

I’m reading David McCullough’s biography of Theodore Roosevelt’s early years, “Mornings on Horseback,” and it’s great. I went to the Theodore Roosevelt birthplace during my last visit to New York, so this is a good followup. Plus, it’s under 400 pages and McCullough writes so well.

2 Daniel 3/03/09 at 11:35 AM

My train reading the past week has been Neal Stephenson’s Anathem which is excellent if you like speculative fiction/sci-fi.

Before that, though, I’ve been working through both Das Kapital and Glinert’s Grammar of Modern Hebrew.