Vacationing Obama Given Franzen Book "Freedom"

President Barack Obama, with his daughters Malia Obama and Sasha Obama, waves to a gathered crowd as they leave the Bunch of Grapes book store in Vineyard Haven, Mass., Friday, Aug. 20, 2010, where the first family is vacationing. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

/ Carolyn Kaster

Updated 4:56 p.m. Eastern Time

President Obama made the first public appearance of his 10-day Martha's Vineyard vacation today, stopping into the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven for some summer reading.

CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller reports that Mr. Obama was given the newly-released book "Freedom," a work of fiction by Jonathan Franzen. Franzen is on the cover of this week's Time Magazine; his previous novel, "The Corrections," was a national bestseller.

CBSNews.com and other media outlets, working off White House comments, initially reported that Mr. Obama bought the book. That was not correct; it turns out he was given an advance reader copy of the novel, which does not officially go on sale until August 31st.

Bunch of Grapes Bookstore told Knoller it does not actually have publication copies of "Freedom." Advance reader's copies are given to bookstores to help them judge a book and determine how many copies to order. Bookstores nationwide have expressed frustration about reports that Mr. Obama bought the book, since they are not yet able to sell it.

In addition to being given "Freedom," the president bought a pair of books that one might expect on a tenth-grade summer reading list, cashier Leroy Hazelton told the Associated Press: "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck. (Those might have been for Sasha and/or Malia, who joined the president on the stop.)

According to the AP, crowds mobbed the bookstore when the president arrived, taking pictures and cheering. 14-year-old Brendan Murphy, who was in the store at the time, got the president to sign a copy of his memoir, "Dreams From My Father," that he had purchased.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing; you don't usually see a president in the bookstore," his 12-year-old sister Ciara said.

25 Photos

First Family's Vacation

[RobAla]

Why is this news?

[joerynk]

Extracting The Mental Illness Of Progressive Liberalism
http://political-lobotomy.blogspot.com/

[babooph]

" The Red Pony"-How did that movie ever get by J.E.Hoover censorship-not a very happy ending there....

[bassinapple]

A local project that President Barack Obama cited during a visit Wednesday to Columbus as an example of how the federal stimulus package has worked isn't actually being funded with stimulus dollars.

If Pres. Bush had done this, CBS would not have ignored it.

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/08/20/copy/obama-had-facts-wrong-about-visit-here.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

[pasmalltown]

Did you read the ENTIRE article you cite? or just stop after reading the 1st sentence? You're entitled to "pick and choose" what you like, but before "passing judgement" read past the headline and first sentence........ Read the whole article, pinhead.

[cornholierthanthou]

A President who reads? Who woulda thunk it? This is genuinely shocking. This is a man I cannot have a beer with. How am I going to drink a beer with "a reader." He must be a Muslim. You know Muslims are are also readers. Correlation? And reading literature? What's that about? Shouldn't he be reading the Koran? You morons were, I'm sure, as offended when the last President became the most prolific vacationer of all time. Or else you would be hypocritical. And I'm sure that's not the case. As the country was driven into it's current destitution, dragging the rest of the world down with it, I'm sure you were up in arms, forming your little tea-bagger parties, protesting the former administration for its failure to act with any semblance of fiscal responsibility. I'm sure you were. Because if not, this vitriol that you spew would look a little suspiciously targeted at this person for reasons not readily apparent, though easily decoded. If this President is a lier, what did we have in the last administration? I'm sure you were furious over the lies utilized to justify our current war efforts. I hope you're all wealthy white people, otherwise you'd be total fools to support the right-wing conservative agenda. Run, don't walk, straight to the voting booth and vote for whoever Sarah Palin votes for. Her party was so successful in their last eight years in power, let's get 'em back. Dogpatch here we come. Why merely suffer through the greatest economic disaster of our times without getting the people back in office most responsible for getting us here. That will surely help. Fortunately though, the people who really matter in this next election don't identify with either party. They're independent voters, some of them likely readers. Your kind is dying, getting smaller and smaller, and thus, screaming louder and louder. Irrelevance, here you come. Ah, the death of the disaffected moron. How we'll truly celebrate that day in America.

[MurdochSucks]

Very nice.

[Otto Holland]

As expected...a bunch of half brain posting idiotec statements. Every president takes vacation, unless he is George Bush who took almost eight years vacationing in Texas.

You work, pay taxes and gets vacation days as any human being should. What's worng with that picture?

[Tallon one]

Instead of buying "How to kill Americans", he should have bought a copy of the "Constitution and the Bill Of Right's" to read while he is relaxing on our dime. He probably already knows wht's in them though, since he is doing such a great job of destroying our country and our rights. It would be nice if we had a congress with some backbone that would have stood up to this fraud and not allowed this unjust disaster.---But wait---they are of the same tribe and must abid what the king wishes. All of congress is as crooked as this "Fraud in Chief.

[bjsinpjs]

"How to kill Americans"? Isn't that the book Bush 2 authored along with his buddy Bin Laden? You know, the same Bin Laden that Clinton tried to kill off but the Republican majority in Congress consistently denied funding for (it's all on the record if you want to bother looking) The same guy whose parents were at the Bush ranch during the September 11 attack (but were allowed to fly home the day after... the only non DOD plane in the air that day I might add). The same guy who Bush 2 protected immediately he became president, by instructing the CIA to "lay off", and stop tracking (again, on the record). The very same guy that Bush 2 sent his "Mission Accomplished" signal to after he did exactly what Bin Laden asked him to do on the Al Qaeda web site (remove all US troops from the land of the Holy cities - Mecca and Medina... 4 days prior to the "Mission Accomplished banner. Bush 2 certainly accomplished his mission, but it wasn't the one the US taxpayers were expecting)... on the record too!

"Fraud in Chief?" Better that than Traitor-in-Chief! But then again, Bush 2 gets both titles doesn't he?

[MurdochSucks]

KAPOWWWWW!!!

[Wanda24]

How did he buy a book that's not due out until August 31?

[Michaelinnh]

The bookstore gave him an advance copy. They did not sell it to him.

[PacificGatePost]

Any books on Leadership? What is Really needed......

A teachable moment for Obama.

Leadership means pointing to clear defined goals and energizing Main Street. It means stating confidence in the bearing - clear heading and clear direction.

What's Obama doing exactly? America is yearning for Leadership. . . .

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2010/08/pent-up-pressures-will-explode-into-new.html

It is not the nature of the average American to want coddling by big government.

[stormerF3]

He must have gotten lost and wondered in by mistake,If he is such a prolific reader he would read the bills before he signs them.