[Future Snake Eater]

Business people seem to be reading less — particularly material unrelated to business.

This comment made me chuckle. I was interviewed by a headhunting agency that recruits junior military officers. The interviewer asked me what I read. I listed off a litany of reading interests. "What about business-related stuff?" Well, honestly I didn't read much about that. No sale.

[jagusafr]

“The interviewer asked me what I read. I listed off a litany of reading interests. “What about business-related stuff?” Well, honestly I didn’t read much about that. No sale.”

Good for you, because the military has become entirely TOO businesslike: everybody wants an MBA, we get force fed TQM/CQI principles ad nauseum and told we need to run the military like a business, and it’s JUST. FLAT. WRONG.

Colonel, USAFR

[Arthur McGowan]

Give a Hoot! Read a Book!

[SMARTY]

It's obvious that more and more people do not read.

You only need to listen to news announcers, politicians, statesmen and even educators (educated ONLY in their discipline and ONLY enough to get jobs IN their discipline).

The least objectionable faults are idiotic mispronunciations of simple words. The real problem is that fewer and fewer people comprehend empirically basic and long known principles of economics, history, geography, science, language, philosophy, etc.

That these people CAN read is not doubted. However, they are not widely read. And it shows. Reading well enough to determine which toothpaste to buy is hardly adequate if you want to be regarded as a person who is capable either of original and critical thinking or a person who is intellectually resourceful.

“Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.”
G. M. Trevelyan

I'd say most people miss what is ‘worth’ reading AND what is ‘necessary’ reading. It's impossible to think of yourself as informed OR knowledgeable without a grasp of the basic information which is routinely omitted from current ‘educational’ programs.

[T-Bird45]

...one of the meetings he requested was with author Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Because he had never seen a plagiarist in the flesh????

[Sherman Logan]

In Passion & Purpose, David Gergen notes that Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein reads dozens of books each week.

Color me skeptical. "Dozens" would presumably mean at least 24. So the guy reads 3.5 books per day. I seriously doubt it.

I probably read 3.5 books per week, and that's more than anybody I know.

[blueunicorn6]

Petraeus is just lining-up his co-author. He has to write his book telling everybody that he really wanted to win, but those bad civilians held him back. Sell it at Arlington.

[dfwgator]

[Monkey Face]

I just now found this! Whoever has the ping list, may I be added? PLEEEEEEZEEE???

[444Flyer]

bflr

(No pun intended.)

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Ad from the 1950's.

[SMARTY]

“Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.”
G. M. Trevelyan