Daily Beast - Obama's Book Club

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/08/14/obama-s-book-club.html

Books Mentioned in Article:

May 2008 - December 2010

2008

May 21, 2008 - The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
June 18, 2008 - Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
September 3, 2008 - Unequal Democracy by Larry Bartels
November 2, 2008 - Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
November 7, 2008 - Collected Poems by Derek Walcott
November 18, 2008 - FDR by Jean Edward Smith
November 18, 2008 - The Defining Moment by Jonathan Alter
November 26, 2008 - Lincoln: Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan
December 16, 2008 - Common Wealth by Jeffrey D. Sachs

2009

May 30, 2009 - What is the What by David Eggers
May 30, 2009 - Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
August 24, 2009 - Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
August 24, 2009 - The Way Home by George Pelecanos
August 24, 2009 - Plainsong by Kent Haruf
August 24, 2009 - Lush Life by Richard Prince
August 24, 2009 - John Adams by David McCullough
September 22, 2009 - Lessons in Disaster by Gordon Goldstein

2010

March 10, 2010 - The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
August 20, 2010 - A Few Corrections by Brad Leithauser
August 20, 2010 - Tinkers by Paul Harding
August 20, 2010 - Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
December 23, 2010 - President Reagan by Lou Cannon
December 31, 2010 - Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell
December 31, 2010 - Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carré

Where did this information come from? How do they know it is complete? Okay, granted he was busy campaigning in the summer of 2008, but nothing between December, 2008 and late May, 2009? Nothing between September, 2009 and March, 2010, or between August and December 2010? And he read five books in one day? Including McCullough's book which is nearly 700 pages not counting the notes and index?

I don't believe it.

The dates aren't a reference to the day he finished the books, rather the day something was published about what he was reading. August 24, 2009 was his summer break two years ago. Those were the books he took on vacation or bought while on vacation:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/08/just-in-obamas-vacation-reading-...

Why so literal?

Maybe because there was no explanation on the link you originally posted? Which says "Here's every book he's read since the last campaign." Why should I assume that site doesn't mean what they say? There's no ambiguity about that headline.

I think the Daily Beast was trying to upset your apple cart (no, not literally). Daily Beast's list is a starting point. Most all of their list can easily be found and replicated on the Internets and the Internets knows everything.