Book It

At my local library, if you read 10 books over the summer, you get a free book, a discount coupon for pizza, some temporary tattoos and an inflatable penguin. You also have be under twelve to participate.

Don't tell George Bush. Bush was in a reading contest with Karl Rove last year, and he claims to have read a 110 books last year. The year before that, in 2005, Bush claimed he was reading 20 to 30 pages on a "good night." Assuming 30 pages a day for 365 days, Bush's books would have to average 100 pages for Bush to make it through 110 books in a year. An 800-page book would take him approximately 27 days to read at 30 ppd.

Truly Tasteless Jokes is 128 pages. For One More Day by Mitch Albom clocks in at 208. The Pimp Game: Instructional Guide is 97 pages. What the hell was Bush reading, Mad Libs? (Not these volumes, I'm guessing.)

The wingnuts used to claim that Bill Clinton's alleged cheating at golf spoke volumes about his character. Bush's pretend love of books would speak to his character, if only he had any.

Correction: On review, it seems Bush only claims to have read 94 books; Rove claims to have read 110. I'm still not buying it.