Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, Rediscovered.

Throughout history, the reading of books, what kind, how many, how long, has been a sort of

armchair way of measuring someone's intelligence. It comes up a lot in presidential elections

and has been a subject of great fascination with

the current president, Donald Trump, who we know from multiple accounts doesn't read much, if

at all. But how much do reading habits actually reveal about a president? Here are stories of

three former presidents at opposite ends of the reading spectrum.

You can decide for yourself.

Next to Trump, the president least inclined to read might have been Zachary Taylor.

A biography of him says, quote, his earliest surviving writing suffers from poor spelling and unusually bad

grammar, while his hand was that of a near illiterate. Taylor came from a modest upbringing. His father

was a planter, and he had little formal education. Taylor rose to become president in spite of his background after his heroic military

leadership in the Mexican-American War. He died a short 16 months into his presidency without

making much progress on the pressing questions of preserving the union or dealing with slavery.

President James Buchanan, on the other hand, was much more literary.

Buchanan was a serious reader throughout his life.

He especially loved biographies of George Washington.

Buchanan's nephew described precisely how he read, which was a little odd.

The nephew wrote, quote, no matter how many lights might be on in the room, he always had a

candlestick and candle, which he held before his eyes, and by that means read his paper

or book.

As he grew older, we often felt quite anxious for fear his paper might

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