"I've stopped reading fiction," renowned novelist Philip Roth announced in a Financial Times interview making the rounds today. Plenty of people took exception to this statement, finding it snobby. Some people, also, just don't like Philip Roth. But one of our readers, Chad Temples, offered up this interesting theory:

I imagine this is more common of artists than we think, especially those working at the height of their powers in their respective field. Most poets I know don't read much poetry...they've had their education, as it were. 

Not that they don't read voraciously. It's just that when you're the trickster, the tricks of your particular trade begin to wear a little thin.

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Heather Horn