Mark Crispin Miller

The Bush Dyslexicon

Observations on a National Disorder

An excerpt, Part 2 of 4

"I love history. I just finished reading The Sword of San Jacinto, about Sam Houston. I like occasional social commentary. I say occasional; I occasionally read social commentary. But I love history. I was a history major in college and I spent a lot of time on history. I'm trying to wrack my brain now that you asked me to think of all the great history books. Well, I mean, The River Also Rises, the book about the Mississippi River that flooded; the '27 flood, I believe it was, of the Mississippi. It's a great book . . . It's amazing to be interested in history and living-making history. It's an interesting coincidence."

—C-SPAN interview, quoted in Jewish World Review, February 5, 1999

"When I was growing up, I preferred reading biographies about historical figures and baseball players. I still enjoy books about history, especially Texas history: The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston, by Marquis James, is one of my favorites.

"I also like studying forces that helped shape today's economy and social structure. The Good Life and Its Discontents: The American Dream in the Age of Entitlement, 1945-1995, by Robert J. Samuelson, and The Dream and the Nightmare: The Sixties' Legacy to the Underclass, by Myron Magnet, each provide food for thought and discussion.

"Laura and I often read to our daughters when they were young. One of their top requests was The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. A few more of my favorite books for children are: Sarah's Flag for Texas, by Jane Alexander Knapik; James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl; My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George; Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt; The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame; Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling.

"Our capacity for discovery is never lost as long as we continue to read."

—American Spectator, December, 1998

"He reads at night, another habit (current bedside books, according to former librarian Laura: The Color of Night, the latest thriller by David L. Lindsey; Hadrian's Walls, a novel by Robert Draper; and John C. Waugh's Reelecting Lincoln)."

—Texas Monthly, June 1999

Thus Bush replied when asked, by a schoolchild in South Carolina, to name the the book he liked the most when he was small:

"I can't remember any specific books."

—Associated Press, August 26, 1999