Bedside Reading

To the Editor:

When asked in By the Book (May 12) what books are on his nightstand, Adm. William McRaven responded, “I always have the Holy Bible close by.” Subsequently in the interview, he included Voltaire (“incomparable mind”) in his list of three invitees to a hypothetical literary dinner party, and when asked who might be chosen to write his life story he named Mark Twain.

Voltaire, in his “Philosophical Dictionary,” described the Bible as “what fools have written, what imbeciles command, what rogues teach and young children are made to learn by heart.” Twain, in “Letters From the Earth,” wrote that the Bible contained “upwards of a thousand lies.”

This interesting mix of choices begs additional explication.

RICHARD SLETTVET
HANSVILLE, WASH.