Jonathan Singer writes:
But just thinking about these numbers — 1.83 books per week — you get the sense that the President could more efficiently use his time. Just going by the amount of reading I do on a day-to-day basis between reading for blogging and reading for law school, it’s difficult for me to get through more than a dozen books a year, give or take a few — and only then generally during real breaks (which presumably a President doesn’t get much of). I would assume that the job of the President of the United States requires as much or more reading than does the job of being a political blogging law student, or at least as much or more active attention, so it’s difficult for me to visualize where the time to read a couple books (whether it’s James L. Swanson’s "Manhunt" or Albert Camus’s "The Stranger") every single week would materialize for a President.
6 Comments
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About The Seminal
Advanced search
I am not buying this man read that many books, I am rather believing rove is using picture and comic books for the figure he sites
Well, he could have been using audio books. That would explain a number of things, if he were listening to books rather than folks trying to brief him. Of course, given his advisers, that might not be such a bad thing either.
Rove is laughing at these calculations, and at anyone who takes these claims of reading by Chimp seriously. It’s lies, all of it: all lies.
Karl is having a laugh at the expense of w and us! No books were read at all by anyone. And Karl is playing a game of oneupmanship with w. He’s angry with w. And he needs shit to talk about to earn $.
Have you read what Karl writes. This is not the writing of an avid reader. He didn’t even graduate college.
I get the impression that Karl’s facility with American history comes from watching the History Channel, not actually reading any history except maybe about McKinley. But you are correct that his writing indicates little reading.
Audiobooks and podcasts allow me to double my reading, and I actually prefer them for certain kinds of books. (Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” and “Tipping Point” are great listening, for instance.)
But the claims of Rove are kind of entertaining, to me as someone who knows quite a lot about reading, as well as learning disabilities.
Kevin Drum had a post once that shocked me, in which he claimed that Bush had made some insightful comments about information in several books. Now, I trust Kevin Drum, but if that’s true then Bush’s ‘persona’ about the Texas brush-clearing ranch owner really is a pile of crap.
I do suspect that Bush likes the fact that his wife reads, and that maybe he doesn’t fully process written information.
I would actually like to see someone figure out whether — as I suspect — he’s an adult with some odd learning disabilities that preclude him from processing subtle distinctions and key concepts, or whether he actually is bright but thinks that he has to stay in that ‘bozo persona mode’.
Judging from Bob Woodward’s books, Bush is a near moron.
I would argue that Scott McClellan’s book –inadvertantly! — makes the same case.
But just because someone ‘reads books’ does NOT mean that they understand them!!
I’ve worked with adult men who are functional illiterates but often carried a paper or notebook to disguise that fact. Like Bush, they rely hugely on social cues and verbal information. Which means that in their cases, ‘Personnel REALLY is policy.” In more ways than any of us want to consider.