Ayatollah Khamenei reveals himself an ‘#AvidReader’ on Twitter

Iran’s supreme leader, who holds the final say on the country’s domestic and international policy, revealed himself as an “#AvidReader” of fiction in a series of tweets this week.

“I'm not into cinema and visual arts,” Ayatollah Ali Khameni declared. “But when it comes to poetry and novels, I'm not just a typical audience. #Books,” his tweet explained.

The 75-year-old spiritual leader expressed his fascination with Soviet-era literature, singling out writers like Mikhail Sholokhov and Alexei Tolstoy, whom he called a “powerful writer.”

While Alexei Tolstoy was “anti-revolutionary,” Khamene explained in reference to the 1917 October revolution in Russia, he then “grasps #revolution, returns home to write ‘The Ordeal.’”

“I’ve read so much on Oct. Rev.; #Sholokhov’s “The Quiet Don” is good but #Tolstoi’s “The Ordeal” is better in depicting a #revolution.”

According to PEN International, an association of writers, more than 20 writers are currently held in Iranian jails, the Guardian reported.