Book Lover Bush

From an e-mail newsletter by management consultant John Pearson:

President George W. Bush is a book lover. Besides reading through the Bible each year, along with a daily devotional reading, the President read 95 books in 2006. He finished 51 books in 2007 and read at least 40 in 2008.

Karl Rove, former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President Bush, reported all of this in a Wall Street Journal column on Dec. 26, 2008. Rove and the President had a little reading contest going over the years. Rove won each year (his top mark was 110 books in 2006). Amazing.

The next day, in the same paper, Peggy Noonan predicted, “I suspect reading is about to make a big comeback in America, that in fact we’re going to be reading more books in the future, not fewer.” In her column, Noonan listed the wide range of books she had devoured in 2008.

Rove commented on Bush’s equally diverse selections and said Bush explained that he had lost the contest “because he’d been busy as Leader of the Free World.” Rove added, “The reading competition reveals Mr. Bush's focus on goals. It's not about winning. A good-natured competition helps keep him centered and makes possible a clear mind and a high level of energy.

"He reads instead of watching TV. He reads on Air Force One and to relax and because he's curious. He reads about the tasks at hand, often picking volumes because of the relevance to his challenges. And he's right: I've won because he has a real job with enormous responsibilities.”