The president who read before breakfast

Theodore Roosevelt entered every room with a book, even the White House.

He was known for reading quickly and carrying books into gaps in his crowded day.

He read history, poetry, natural science and adventure, often several books at once.

Reading was not an escape from action for Roosevelt; it supplied energy for it.

The detail is memorable because it changes the usual picture of Theodore Roosevelt. Fame makes a life look inevitable; the real story is often built from curiosity, wrong turns and decisions nobody could recognise as important at the time.

A symbolic action can communicate an idea more powerfully than a long speech.