[VoodooJuJu]

>As we know only too well, reading books is considered the fundamental ingredient for moving from mental inferiority to inspiring intelligence.

Lost me right at the first sentence. It's inferior to believe that books are a fundamental ingredient in allaying mental inferiority. Most knowledge is tacit and comes from doing, not reading. The hero who confronts the lion gains wisdom along the way. The nerd in his library merely thinks he's gaining wisdom.

[WolfeReader]

Strong anti-intellectual vibes here. A mature mind can learn from second-hand experience - this is after all why religions have scriptures, why technology has manuals, and why civilizations record their history.

As a parent - and as a former child, too - I'm all too familiar with the childish attitude that you don't need to learn from the lived experience of others. If every adult in your life is telling you not to jump off of the trampoline, you still think "I bet _I_ can jump off the trampoline! What do they know?" And one or two broken legs later, you just gained wisdom the hard way.

Most people outgrow this mentality, and learn to consider and respect sources of experience besides their own.