The Age‘s Misha Schubert has got what has to be the scoop of the summer – the PM’s holiday reading list:

As John Howard takes time out for a spot of reading this summer, his literary choices reflect the consuming passions of his life: politics and the military.

Top of the Prime Minister’s holiday reading list is Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

It’s an account of the former US president’s transition, in the words of Publisher’s Weekly, from “underwhelming one-term congressman and prairie lawyer to robust chief executive during a time of crisis.”

No doubt, as Mr Howard reads it, he will reflect on his own journey — from the man about whom The Bulletin magazine asked in 1988 “Why on earth does this man bother?” to four-time election victor…

It’s even more apt. Goodwin has had to weather a ferocious plagiarism storm. Plagiarism is just a variation on those “who said what when” issues that bedevils John Howard’s government.

But what else are our pols reading over summer? Did Peter Costello head off to LA with a copy of Kipling’s cautionary tale The Man Who Would be King in his carry-on? Crikey subscribers may like to pre-empt the stories with their keen psychological insights into public affairs. Suggestions, please, to christian@crikey.com.au.