据美联社11月29日报道，为响应感恩节过后的“星期六小商家日”，美国总统奥巴马当天带着两个女儿玛丽亚和萨莎光顾了华盛顿一家知名独立书店，并购买了17本书，其中一本书还与中国有关。
近年来，感恩节后的星期六已被包装成“星期六小商家日”，旨在鼓励消费者把自己的假期购物消费放在独立小商家身上。该消费日设在大型零售商的“黑色星期五”和在线零售商的“网购星期一”之间。
在17本书中，成年人读物有《纽约客》杂志前驻华记者欧逸文的《野心时代:在新中国追逐财富、真相和信念》，外科医生阿图•葛文德的《致命》，以及美国作家安东尼•多尔的《所有我们不能看见的光》。年轻人的读物包括3本布里安•雅克的“红城”系列，2本芭芭拉•帕克的朱尼•琼斯系列，以及朵琳•克罗宁的《疯狂农庄收藏》。
President Barack Obama tried to draw attention to independently owned businesses on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, a day that is increasingly being marketed as one for deal-hungry consumers to remember to patronize these mom-and-pop outlets while doing their holiday shopping.
He bought bags of books — 17 titles in all — during a stop at Politics and Prose, a popular Washington bookstore now owned by a former Washington Post reporter and his wife, also a former Post reporter who also worked for Hillary Rodham Clinton at the White House and State Department.
In recent years, the Saturday after Thanksgiving has been advertised as "Small Business Saturday." It's designed to drive foot traffic to independent businesses in between the frenzy of Black Friday sales at mass retailers and the Cyber Monday deals available online.
Obama browsed the bookstore's racks with his daughters, Malia and Sasha. He held one shopper's baby and chatted with author David Baldacci. While paying at the cash register, another patron encouraged Obama to close the U.S. facility in Cuba where suspected terrorists are detained.
"Hope you can close Guantanamo," the patron said.
"We're working on it," Obama replied, then cheerily added to the crowd of shoppers: "Any other issues?"
Obama also joked, "Hope it works," when he handed his credit card to the cashier. That appeared to be a reference to when a restaurant declined his card while he dined out in New York City in late September.
Obama bought a mix of titles apparently chosen to satisfy readers young and old. The White House declined to reveal how much he paid.
Among the books in the president's shopping bags for mature readers were "Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China" by New Yorker writer Evan Osnos, "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End" by surgeon Atul Gawande and "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr.
For younger readers, Obama's purchases included three titles in the "Redwall" series by Brian Jacques, two titles in the Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park and "A Barnyard Collection: Click, Clack, Moo and More" by Doreen Cronin.
Obama and his daughters also shopped at Politics and Prose on the Saturday after Thanksgiving last year.