Way to be the sheep and not a shepherd.

girl, i've been listening to that shiz on my ipod for the last couple weeks on my walk to and from work. i don't ever want it to end. i only allow myself 3 or 4 chapters a day. it makes me feel warm inside. i love how naked it is.

a billion... really? I think not.

is there any book that's been read by a billion people, white or otherwise, outside the bible and the koran? Maybe the phone book if you count them all together.

Sorry, I meant a trillion.

#3

hyperbole = literary device

(maybe only 500,000 which makes it totally unimportant)

do you correct spelling in blog posts?

How come he never "Dreams" of his brother who is living in a shack in near poverty? Or how about sending some money...something...

I wasn't planning on reading it but maybe now I will.

(John Bailo, what exactly is wrong with you, anyway?)

@6: So . . . you're either the executive director of an international non-profit poverty fighting agency or a giant asshole.

@ 8: My money is on "Giant asshole"

I'm reading it too. I haven't gotten to the angry young black man part yet, but I'm anxious to get there.

"Anger is a gift."

That book was my first real exposure to Barack...and I fell in love with the way he thinks. His honesty and self-described struggle to become more self-aware was enough for me to believe.

I can NOT wait for tonight.

How about Toni Morrison, for starters?

George Obama says fuck you, John Bailo.

[George] said that he was furious at subsequent reports that he had been abandoned by the Obama family and that he was filled with shame about living in a slum. “It seems there are people who want to destroy me and my family,” he said.

“They say I live on a dollar a month, but this is all lies by people who don’t want my brother to win.”

John Bailo is a conservative troll.

Lindy West give ecce homo bite of giant alien fungus, ecce homo eat fungus, freak out, John Bailo out, ECCE HOMO BECOME JOHN BAILO!

JOHN BAILO WILL TROLL SLOG, SAY CRAZY STUPID SHIT ALL THE TIME, NOT BE FUN SPOOF TROLL LIKE INCREDIBLE SULK, BE REAL GENUINE ASSHOLE TROLL!

And no, I don't feel like letting it go.

Brendan: Toni Morrison isn't a bestseller. She's an English class writer. Hence, my distinction from academia.

But you said for starters: What else?

it's also Felix Day! Hurrah!

it's also Felix Day! Hurrah!

Sorry, I meant to say he was living in the penthouse suite at the W hotel. Here's a picture of his digs:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2590614/Barack-Obamas-lost-brother-found-in-Kenya.html

I've also been listening to Barack reading his own book to me, on my iTunes and it's really great.

To Kill A Mockingbird.

"What’s the last book that a billion white people read that was even marginally about race, and that wasn’t treated academically?"

Harry Potter. Duh!

I have no idea what Hernandez is talking about, so I will consider myself clueless on that score.

But to you others: No literature, people. Nothing assigned in English class.

Are you nutball? Toni Morrison has been the Oprah book-of-the-whatever several times over. She spent around four months on the best-seller list (for Beloved, I think) and once had two different books on the best-seller list at the same time!

Plus, Tavis Smiley. For another.

John Bailo, I really want to know what is wrong with you. Come on.

Already read it, great book.

What do you think of the sequel "How I p0wnd GWB and his clone McSame"?

From Nutso: Maybe you're right about Toni Morrison. I'll give you Beloved, at least.

And then what? Again, let's try to avoid English class.

To Kill a Mockingbird underscores Jen's point (english class or not). It was a LONG time ago.

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis is about race, class, and football, and it's great.

Brendan Kiley: Did I just hear you say "Tavis Smiley"?

My point is that I think white people don't generally pursue race as a subject for extended consideration or extended discussion. A literary abstraction, maybe. A morality tale, maybe. I think Barack's presidency could seriously change that.

Bailo-

That's just an entranceway photo. Have you ever been outside this country? They're not all McMansions. You're done.

The Namesake.

The Color Purple? Autobiography of Malcolm X?

I know—Tavis Smiley I was kind of kidding about. But Alice Walker, for sure. And Cornel West has been on the best-seller list and he is an academic.

I agree that Barack's presidency will fundamentally change race relations in America, but many more white folks pursue race as a subject for extended conversation (for good or for ill) than you know. I reject your generalization!

George Obama lives very well for someone in Kenya. Only filthy rich Africans live in conditions that remotely resemble an American middle class lifestyle.

Not that your point is not taken, Jen. But, Richard Price?

It's Felix Day, too!

What's with the marginalization of academia? How many commenters have attended school beyond high school? What percentage of people who make decisions and influence the course of society have at least a few years of college? I suspect both numbers are relatively high (though you wouldn't necessarily know it from the output of either) The question, JG, is what does this distinction imply?

You're right Jen. A remarkable book. Obama's not Faulkner but the man can write. Remember: He wrote this. Not some staff minion or ghost writer. And while you can't discount Obama's ambition, this isn't a campaign document. He wrote it after graduating from law school. I do think the final portion about his time in Kenya goes on too long. But the rest is revealing, amazingly candid, and, the biggest surprise of all, a good read.