According to Plutarch, Alexander the Great was given an annotated copy of the Iliad which he carried with him everywhere. He considered it a “perfect portable treasure of all military virtue and knowledge” and was fascinated by the character of Achilles.
Emperor Marcus Aurelius was extremely well-read. His tutor described how the emperor read works of Cato the Elder, Cicero, Lucretius, and Seneca in addition to numerous Greek tragedies.
King Alfred the Great was a pious youth who loved “reading aloud from books in English and above all learning English poems by heart”. He also translated some important works into old English like Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy and Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care.
President George Washington had a massive library. He kept (and read) over 900 books at his Mount Vernon estate. Despite lacking a formal education, he credited reading as a major factor to his success. Favorites of his were Plato’s Republic, and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had a personal librarian, and he always traveled with books on his military campaigns. His taste could be described as “classical”, enjoying works of Plutarch, Homer, Cicero, Livy, and Plato, to name a few.
President Abraham Lincoln’s stepsister described him as reading “everything he could.” As a young man he devoured classics like Aesop’s Fables, Pilgrim’s Progress, Robinson Crusoe, and Mason Weems’s Life of George Washington.
In a letter to the president of Columbia University, President Teddy Roosevelt shared some book recommendations ranging from classic novels to military history. Picks included the History of the Peloponnesian War, Oedipus Rex, and Aristotle’s Politics.
Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, as a prolific writer himself, liked to socialize with contemporaneous authors and often read the latest novels like 1984 by Orwell. He was also a voracious reader of political and military history, which he turned to good effect during World War Two.
It’s interesting to note the significant overlap in the works that these famous political figures read, especially the Greek and Roman classics.
I could go on, but I doubt that more than a handful of the people who spend their time insulting one another on this forum have the desire or the ability to learn.
