As you all well know, I’m hard pressed to turn down any form of book review. What can I say? I like to read. And if someone wants to give me a book and I get to “force” myself to read, all while considering it “work,” all the better. One thing I have always really enjoyed about reading is quotes. I like to quote books just as readily as movies and find that so many wonderful, zany, and poignant statements come from some surprising sources in my life. I have found some truly awesome things in the weirdest of books. This is why I try never to be TOO biased. Heck, I thought Harry Potter was an absolutely terrible idea for a book and couldn’t understand why everyone I knew was reading them. I didn’t actually start them myself until book five was out and it was only because I was stuck somewhere with nothing else to read at my disposal; I have since learned to give anything a try.
But when I got wind of Wisdom From the Oval Office, I instantly knew I was going to like it. I’d love to say that I went in with unsure feelings about the book and was pleasantly surprised, but who am I kidding? A book full of amazing quotes from American Presidents? Um, awesome.
What did strike me when I got it though was how it’s indexed, both genius and easy to use. The quotes are arranged by topic. This for me made it even more enjoyable to peruse. It meant that I could flip to the section about education and find some truly awesome quotes just as readily as hitting the back of the book to look up by President. So amazing!
It also means that I’ve been wandering around after my husband for the last two weeks saying, “Did you know so and so said this about such and such?” “Oh, this reminds me of this awesome quote from President XYZ about ABC!” It also means that I may or may not have been banned from quoting presidents anymore and I might also now have to run all my book review choices past my husband before I agree to them…
But really, from Washington to Obama, there is a quote for everything in there. And if a quote can apply to more than one topic or situation, the author didn’t hesitate to include it more than once so I never have to actually memorize a quote again, I just have to flip through this book. It truly is exactly what I was promised: The ultimate Presidential quote book. It really is the most comprehensive collection of quotes from some of the greatest political minds in American History (and maybe a few dullards too, depending on your opinions).
Whether you are a student, teacher, philosopher (those still exist, right?), or just someone like me who happens to love quotes and love American history, this is probably the best book you can add to your collection. Plus, you look really, REALLY smart when you can reply to emails with, “This reminds me of a wonderful quote from our beloved President ABC.” And who doesn’t want to look smart?
