Many folks have had fun with the notion that President George W Bush never made reading a
big priority. They laughed at his lack
of gravitas. But I think much of that
criticism is unfair. He may have had a
bad experience with, say, Proust, or Dickens, or even Robert Ludlum. Such an experience can emotionally scar (scare?)
the reader, in the same way that a
person who gets stung in the stock market can never again take on anything riskier than treasury bonds or certificates of deposit.
I personally had
a traumatic experience in college while on Milton.
It came close to putting me off the classics for good. I fucking hate Milton.
So lay off President Bush if he wants to read Field and Stream.
