From a reader:

Seems like the TR display at Widener Library at Harvard claims that he read two books a day his entire life. This claims he read one book a day.
Either way, it’s an extraordinary claim for a man who did so much in his life. It’s frankly hard for me to believe. If even close to the truth, it shows another way in which TR was a great man, in that he constantly strove to learn about the world. This, along with writing forty books himself.
Frankly, love him or hate him, he was definitely one of the most extraordinary men who ever lived.

I agree with this entirely. I helped produce some TV shows on TR years ago, and we did a lot of work at TR’s birthplace in NYC (a great, easy to visit, spot for tourists btw). One of my favorite stories (and I might be butchering it a bit) related to the fact that he was easily one of America’s most important and respected naturalists. One time, while TR was still in the White House, some biologists found the remains of some animal (a bird, I think) and couldn’t figure out what it was. So, they shipped it to D.C. where Roosevelt laid out the bones on his desk in the Oval Office and identified it.

I remember when I was on a TR kick after reading the Edmund Morris book, I was desperate to find out whether Churchill and Teddy had ever met. They seemed like such similar creatures: warrior-scribe-statesmen. The only place I found a reference was in Paul Johnson’s A History of the American People. It turns out they did know each other, but being so similar did not like each other. TR criticized the young Churchill as the sort of man who does not stand up when ladies enter the room (here’s the reference). If anyone knows of a fuller take on the relationship, please let me know.