Jim Mattis in March 2018. He resigned as defense secretary in December. Credit Mark Peterson/Redux.

“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”

(Marine General Jim Mattis, from his new book “Call Sign Chaos,” written with Bing West)

(Quoted by David Brooks, “Jim Mattis and the Formation of Character,” NYTimes, 8-29-19)

The command to Read! coming from a leatherneck of General Mattis’s standing carries a certain weight.

(c) 2019 JMN