I heard that Bush also said that he had an "eppleptic" or "epileptic" collection of books (instead of ecclectic) in that same interview...can anyone verify?

I think Bush was a "child left behind" when it came to his schooling!

Manhattanite,

So "Anyone with a passing knowledge of French literature" knows and has read Naguib Mahfouz? Sure, it rolls right off the tongue "Proust, Stendhal, Mahfouz...".

That is simply ludicrous. I have a passing knowledge of French literature. I've read Camus, Proust, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Robbe-Grillet, Aimé Césaire, Maryse Condé -- in French. When it was reported that Mahfouz died, I had a vague idea of who was, but I certainly hadn't read any of his work.

SO I guess that means I don't have a passing knowledge of French literature? Okay, if you say so, but it seems to me like that kind of comment is meant to make you feel superior rather than move the conversation along.

I read your other letters and see that you seem to specialize in short, one line, nominally cutting comments which add nothing to the conversation. Is that faux hipness or just a lack of anything constructive to say?

The point of my first post, I'll repeat it for you because I'm starting to think that you're not all that bright despite being well-read, is that of all the legitimate reasons to criticize the President, not knowing who Mahfouz is is not one of them. It reeks of the sort of faux elitism which turns off the entire country; plus it always seems to be a double standard, so not knowing who Mahfouz is is a sign of absolute ignorance and lack of spohistication, but not knowing, say, who is second in command in China (or even #1) or Indonesia is perfectly acceptable.

Several times, when I have met Francophiles bemoaning the lack of knowledge of France by Americans, I've asked them who the President of Indonesia is. I mean, this isn't an esoteric question. It is a big, sem-stable country of 200+ million people and the world's largest Muslim population. It probably has infinitely more impact on our lives that knowledge of French culture? They never know. Nor do they usually know who the President of China is. I do this not to make people feel stupid, but to point out that we all have blind spots and gaps in our knowledge base.

The world is a big place and knowledge is vast and unconquerable. Parading whatever little nuggets are important to you as universally important and the marker of an educated person is myopic, arrogant and counter-productive. We've all sat at the dinner party where the one person is loudly extolling his/her extensive knowledge of jazz, architecture, Shakespeare, whatever... and in the process showing everyone how smart s/he is, right? That person often subtly or unsubtly belittles someone who doesn't know as much as they do. Do you ever leave that party impressed? I never do.

No question he can read, we have all seen it 9/11 in the famous Kindergarten.

He must have read the comic book versions

I think you are the one missing the point Buffalonian. True, many readers might not be familiar with Mahfouz's work (I've never read anything by him), but they aren't critisizing the president for not knowing who he is. They are critisizing the bizzare attempts of the presdent's PR team to convince us that the commander-in-chief is actually a thoughtful, literate intellectual despite a fairly robust backlog of evidence to the contrary.

Maybe the president did indeed read "three Shakespeares" this past summer (Though I too wonder how the hell he finds the time), but the fact that he is choosing to advertise this fact smacks of a desperate attempt to change the public's perception of his intellect. It's not enough to say that he's been reading, he has to let us know he's read 60 books this year and he's reading heavy stuff like Camus, not just some Grisham or Dan Brown. So who exactly is trying to show off how smart they are?

Oh and "Anon...Good Nurse" here is a link to the interview where Bush said his reading style is "eppleptic" or "eckiletic" as I heard it. Notice how he also manages to avoid outlining the plot of "The Stranger".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTKZlGK0yBw&mode=related&search=

So our beloved president attended one of the most prestigious universities in America and he's just gettring around to reading Camus and Shakespeare? It appears that Bush somehow circumvented the tools academia uses to teach future leaders how to think! To simply ponder what a mess Bush's "No Child Left Behind" theory has done to public education and he is now turning his sight towards colleges and universities. If this man's ability to think and reason simulatanelously wasn't so tragic this whole administration could have been sold to TV as a new, hilarious sitcom called "George and Friends!"

I am stunned that no commentary has been made over a college-educated man, who happens to lead America, mangling yet another word. Maybe it's the fatigue.

Why can't the Democrats run a commercial piecing together "strategery" "eciletic" and whatever other manglings one can find - and putting that other genius correcting a kid over "P-O-T-A-T-O+E" into the same piece. Run it over and over.

It *is* this intellectual sloppiness that put us in Iraq, out of New Orleans and Kyoto, and god knows what else as his Court appointments "blossom."

In the early sixties, when I was in high school, Camus and Shakespeare were part of the college prep curriculum. Widdle Georgie is a pridefully ignorant prick, and not for a moment to I believe he did anything this summer besides take naps, bike around for photo ops, and closet drink. Oh, and screw up the entire world, by proxy.