Former President George W Bush's memoir was rolled out in bookstores in the United States.

Bush's book, "Decision Points," is full of anecdotes and behind-the-scenes details of eight eventful years that began with the September 11th in 2001 attacks and ended with an economic meltdown in which "I felt like the captain of a sinking ship."

Bush also strongly defended the use of waterboarding as critical to his efforts to prevent a repeat of the September 11th, 2001, attacks on the United States. He wrote waterboarding was limited to three detainees and led to intelligence breakthroughs that thwarted attacks.

The book also tells of many errors involving the Iraq campaign and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction there, despite numerous intelligence reports pointing to their existence.

"No one was more shocked or angry than I was when we didn't find the weapons. I had a sickening feeling every time I thought about it. I still do," Bush wrote.

The memoir includes the revelation that controversial Vice President Dick Cheney had volunteered to step down in 2003 so Bush could pick someone else as his 2004 campaign running mate.

Bush said he considered the offer, writing that while Cheney "helped with important parts of our base, he had become a lightning rod for criticism from the media and the left."

The former president also wrote he considered ordering a US military strike against a suspected Syrian nuclear facility at Israel's request in 2007 but ultimately opted against it. Israel eventually destroyed the facility, which Syria denied was aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability.

But in Dallas, Texas at least a thousand people lined up outside a bookstore overnight, where Bush appeared later for a booksigning to launch the book.