Naked Cowboy is quite the reader

NEW YORK, April 9 (UPI) -- Robert John Burck -- New York's Naked Cowboy -- owns 36 pair of white underpants and a library of dozens of books, The New York Daily News reported.

Burck is more or less instantly recognizable as the guitar-slinging guy in the tighty-whities, cowboy boots and a Stetson hat who serenades people on the streets of New York. It turns out he is also an avid reader.

"My day is filled with being the Naked Cowboy, working out, eating -- but mainly reading," he told the newspaper. "I read six or seven hours a day. It's the first thing I do in the morning. I consume books and I become what I'm reading."

Burck, 35, said he gets to use two dresser drawers in his girlfriend's Secaucus, N.J., home -- where he keeps one pair of jeans, a couple of shirts and 36 pair of bright white underpants. He also his books -- by such writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emmanuel Kant.

"I don't go out much," he said. "Last night I socialized with Ralph Waldo Emerson, somebody who at least can hold my attention."