"Do we care to match the reality of America to its ideals?"

Remember when we used to be better?

I have owned the hardcover since it came out, but wanted his voice reading his words to me — so I waited patiently on the audiobook from my library. I think it was on hold for seven months. Worth the wait, and I can't wait for the next volume covering his second term in office.

One of the things that really struck me while reading A Promised Land, was when he talked about discovering his love for books. Any deep-in-their-heart reader, who has learned so many new words just from reading, knows that moment when they have a word they've only ever encountered in print and have no idea how to pronounce it properly. And that's okay — it's a mark of a voracious reader.

"When I finished with the first set of books, I went to other rummage sales, looking for more. Much of what I read I only dimly understood; I took to circling unfamiliar words to look up in the dictionary, although I was less scrupulous about decoding pronunciations — deep into my twenties I would know the meaning of words I couldn't pronounce."

Something else that I loved early on, was how true to himself he seemed. It may not be the Barack he'd be to Michelle; but it's also not quite as careful or stoic as the Barack we got as President. And rightly so. Regardless, I loved this middle-ground Barack Obama — though I did feel like Ray Boyd from Jerry Maguire whenever he'd drop a casual curse word. You know, like a regular person.

Jerry Maguire: The fuckin' zoo is closed, Ray.
Ray: You said fuck.
Jerry Maguire: Uh... yeah... I...
Ray: Don't worry. I won't tell.

Audiobook, as narrated by the author: Perfection. (Albeit, perfection that had to be listened to at 1.25x because of his well-known careful and deliberate way of speaking.) All is good.