- He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
- He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball
- His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili
- His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini
- He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
- He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
- He has read every Harry Potter book
- He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
- He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream
- His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
- He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
- He can speak Spanish
- While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
- His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea
- He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn't
- He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
- He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
- He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
- His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
- He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
- His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
- He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
- His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
- He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
- His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
- He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
- He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
- He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
- He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
- As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
- His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
- He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
- He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
- His house in Chicago has four fire places
- Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita
- He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
- He uses an Apple Mac laptop
- He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
- He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
- He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
- He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)
- His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire
- He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers
- He was nicknamed "Bar" by his late grandmother
- He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
- His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso
- His speciality as a cook is chilli
- He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"
- He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
- His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government
telegraph, UK
Hi Sera interesting and amusing blog
cheers Geri
Hi Sera,
I already on the 4th book of Twilight (Breaking Dawn) and I am almost done with it and I must say that It is really good...
It's a different kind of love story and I love it, I am even looking forward for New Moon movie version...
Thank you for visiting my blog...I have followed yours...
Keep on smiling...