Contrary to the usual caricature of George W. Bush as unread, he is an avid reader, according to his friend and former aide Karl Rove. In a 2008 column, Rove disclosed that Bush had read probably hundreds of books over the course of his presidency. The former U.S. president’s long reading list was still regarded by his critics as narrow and insufficient to get him out of his fixed ideas.

It may be considered out of context ― or even out of the question ― to ask Korea’s two main presidential contenders, who are pouring all their energy into street campaign rallies with a week left until polling day, what books they are reading or have read this year.

Neither would want to be caricatured as unread as Bush had mistakenly been viewed, as argued by Rove, who said Bush “has always had a book nearby” in the 35 years he had known the former U.S. leader. Or speaking more accurately, they might feel no need to worry about their reputation as a reader as few voters seem to have an interest in the matter.

The question on the candidates’ reading list must be asked not just to gauge their intellectuality but as a topic for opening an in-depth discourse on their cultural perceptions and what policies ― if they ever had ones ― they would pursue to promote the culture industry, especially publication and printed media.

Policy measures on the cultural sector have rarely topped the list of campaign pledges in the previous presidential elections, but they have never been so scant as in this contest between Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party and Rep. Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party.

A look into the lists of policy pledges suggested by both candidates shows that they lack concrete ideas and measures for boosting culture and arts in the country. Late President Kim Dae-jung put forward effective pledges to strengthen support for the culture industry in his campaign for the 1997 election even amid a deepening foreign exchange crisis. His liberal successor Roh Moo-hyun also paid attention to cultural tasks, though his administration later came under criticism for being ideologically biased in supporting artists and writers.

What is particularly required of the current presidential runners is to suggest visions and plans for enhancing the reading culture and publication industry, which has been withering amid the spread of the Internet and mobile devices. One in three adult Koreans read no books last year, with the country’s reading rate, which means the proportion of people who have read at least one book annually, at the bottom of the 34-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The turnover of local publishing houses declined by 4.1 percent from a year earlier to 3.22 trillion won ($2.98 billion) in 2011, according to figures from a traders’ association.

The leading presidential contenders held a debate Monday on economic and welfare issues. As in their previous debate on Dec. 4, which was devoted to politics and security matters, they fell short of impressing voters with their grasp of the agenda and feasible plans to carry them out. They are supposed to address cultural matters as part of their third and last debate on Dec. 16, which will also cover social issues, education, science and technology.

It is hoped that a question will be asked about their reading list and their plans to encourage people to read more books as a barometer of their cultural perceptions and insight. They are advised to take time out before the debate to read at least one book, entitled “The Society of Fatigue.” The work by a Korean philosopher teaching in Germany, which diagnoses socio-psychological problems as resulting from overemphasis on achievement, was recently chosen by local publishers as a book they most want to give to the next president as a gift.