To Read or Not To Read

Thought-provoking quote from Adam Carolla, from his March 13th podcast with Doug Benson (at the 50:20 mark):

I never learned how to read. As an adult when I got into radio I had to learn how to read. A listener asked me if I was going to emphasize reading with my kids. There's a part of me that, at first blush, thinks "absolutely, they should love reading, they should be great at reading, they should embrace it." But there's another part of me that thinks, "maybe I have a very fertile mind because I wasn't ingesting other people's ideas." I know that sounds weird, but if you think about it, there are a lot of people that read that are basically taking other people's ideas and downloading them. People drift off into this world that someone else created. Whereas for me, I didn't read, so I was always coming up with my own thoughts and my own ideas.

Carolla is brilliant...and vulgar...and distasteful...and hilarious. As someone who spent several years not reading, I'm intrigued by the notion that I was better served by staying away from books. (Though I kinda doubt it.)

Regardless, I wonder what Carolla would say about me quoting his ideas on how readers spend their time quoting other people's ideas...