White House Details President's Vacation Reading

Dec. 28, 2005 — -- President Bush is doing some reading on his Texas vacation, cracking open a volume about one president's life after the White House and another about the lives of U.S. troops -- written by someone who has criticized the Bush administration.

A spokesman said this week that the commander in chief is reading "When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House" by Patricia O'Toole.

The book details Roosevelt's attempt to win back the presidency in 1912 as well as his post-White House African safari. Roosevelt was 50 when he left office. Bush will be 62 when his term is up. He has said he'd be happy to retire to his Texas ranch.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy insisted we should read nothing into the president's interest in Roosevelt's later years. Describing Bush as a history buff, Duffy said, "the president knows full well that he's got a lot of time left in this second term and he's going to accomplish big things, as he has talked about repeatedly." The book was recommended to Bush by NBC's Brian Williams.

The president's other vacation read is "Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground." The book, almost a travelogue, gives glimpses of life for troops dispatched to fight the war on terror, from Iraq to the Philippines. Author Robert Kaplan celebrates the work of the everyday "grunt" but criticizes the politicians and bureaucrats who craft America's foreign policy, which he views as imperialist, even if necessarily so.

When asked why the president is reading a book by an author who has criticized the administration's post-war planning, Duffy said, "The president is an avid reader. He reads books of all kinds and stripe and persuasion."

Bush's own political hero -- Ronald Reagan -- didn't have such high-brow taste. Reagan liked to read westerns, especially Louis L'Amour's tales of frontier life. Reagan was also known to be a fan of Reader's Digest.