It's easy to read this list as a rebuttal to two of the most prominent critiques of a Bush candidacy. First, against any resistance to Yet Another Bush, it paints him as a detail-oriented guy who's serious about policy, unlike his brother. And against the complaint that he's simply not conservative enough for today's Republican Party, the breadth shows he not a squishy centrist. Hurston might seem like a sop to diversity, but it's worth noting that she had surprisingly conservative politics.

Clinton's list—cleverly spotted by Politico's Dylan Byers in a since-deleted picture of a forthcoming New York Times article—is quite different:

The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

Mom & Me & Mom, Maya Angelou

Missing You, Harlan Coben

The Hare With Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal

The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert

Citizens of London, Lynne Olson

A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

Decision Points, George W. Bush

Faith of My Fathers, John McCain

Clinton also cites as favorite authors Laura Hillenbrand, Walter Isaacson, Barbara Kingsolver, John le Carre, John Grisham, Hillary Mantel, Toni Morrison, Anna Quindlen, and Alice Walker. She claims to be embarrassed not to have read Proust's In Search of Lost Time, though that smacks of humblebrag.

This list showcases Clinton's softer, more relatable side, which voters seem to like but which she sometimes struggles to demonstrate (cf. "You're likable enough, Hillary"). While there are questions about Clinton's stint at Foggy Bottom, from Benghazi to what exactly she accomplished there, no one seems worried that she's not serious about policy; and with her husband still very popular, she doesn't have to run against him. So here we get Hillary: She's just like you! She loves female authors—Alice Walker, yes, but also Elizabeth Gilbert. She's intellectual for Isaacson, but not above a thriller from Coben or Grisham. There's a heavy bias toward memoirs, including the Bush and McCain books, a gesture of bipartisanship. What you won't see here is a provocative choice from the bestseller list: no Elizabeth Warren, no Thomas Piketty, no Michael Lewis.

If there's a surprise, it's how little overlap there is between the two lists, given that Bush and Clinton are very much creatures of the same milieu. Neither mentions Tom Friedman, the perennial shibboleth of the Very Serious, nor are there similarly popular figures who appeal to both left and right, your Fareed Zakarias and Malcolm Gladwells. If both Bush and Clinton run, they won't have much to talk about backstage at debates, except maybe the strain of maintaining political dynasties.