Until last week, when the New York Times revealed it, it was
a state secret. President Bush reads a
great deal. He reads most evenings in
bed and always reads on Air Force One trips, which are frequent. He loves Tom
Wolf and read the most recent Michael Crichton. He prefers to read non-fiction and
intensely read Ron Chernow’s Hamilton. He recommended Natan Sharansky's Case For Democracy to everyone who came
to the Oval Office.
This has been a state secret for more than a dozen years and was only revealed because the Constitution bans Geo. W. Bush from running for reelection. Could the president be as demonic as the photo on the right suggests?
What is it about being a big reader that must be kept secret? Answer:
Most people don't read any books after high school or college. 80 million homes have five or fewer books including bibles and cook books.
Regular readers of books, other than pulp fiction, constitute less than one million people (the subscription level of the New Yorker). Regular readers of non-fiction are less than half of that number.
It isn't just that regular readers are an insignificant number of voters, and that readers probably have little or no loyalty to other readers, the reality is that American voters are much more able to identify with a leader who is berated as a non-reader.
The Bush reading state secret probably got Bush five votes for every one he lost.