Dan Thomasson recommends that we avoid autobiographies by those seeking high office, calling them hastily written, the best spin possible and glossing over events (“Only gullible go buy book,” Aug. 23). He should also have mentioned that such tomes are usually penned not by the candidate alone, thus indeed rendering them not a true memoir, but rather an extended campaign ad.

What Thomasson neglects to mention is that Barack Obama’s first memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” was written in 1995, well before the start of his political career. Anyone who has read “Dreams” knows that it is anything but hastily written and that in it, Obama does not shy away from portraying less complimentary aspects of his life.