I’m with John on the futility of asking candidates for their favorite books, with one exception: In the 2000 cycle we got, not one, but two revealing answers. Al Gore said his favorite book was The Red and the Black (Stendahl’s novel of the inauthentic life lived in the service of ambition). George W. Bush said his was The Raven, an old Pulitzer prize winning bio of Sam Houston that is readily available in Texas. Most interesting bit: Houston had the same problem Bush had.