Is it true that Nakamura never read a chess book?

I keep seeing references to this but I'm not sure if it's true. I heard that he played/analysed with computers repeatedly and 'never read a chess book.' I can't help thinking that this must be an exaggerated of his training methods. If not, is there anything we can learn from Nakamura's approach to chess?

I don't know about that but he did grow up with a stepfather that is rated somewhere around 2300 that may of had something to do with his developement as a player.

Yes that certainly wouldn't hurt.

it's very nice to have a person rated over 2300 and play him/her all the time, improving very fast.

I think he probably didn't read a lot of chess books, and learnt mostly from his stepfather, from computers and from practice.

There is a lesson here : spending all your childhood learning chess with a FM in your family helps

As for the implied question : is it good to learn under the computer's tutelage, my answer would be  - it's okay if you can harness its powers and assimilate its teachings. Is it easy to do for most chess players ? I very much doubt it. Is it easier for a 2200-2300 level player ? Probably...

Surely not.

Does youtube count? :)

Nakamura, especially when he was younger, made many outrageous claims. He wasn't considered a serious contender for the top ten in the world because he lacked chess "culture".

He once claimed that he'd never read a chess book and never studied any game that had been played before he was born. 

That second part is certainly not true anymore. He studied under Kasparov and has certainly increased his chess literacy. During one live game, he commented about the similarity between the game and a game Steinitz had played. 

it is possible to get to GM without reading a book as long as you play enough

you can use trial and error

I use rile and terror.

If this is true, maybe Nakamura should of study from a chess books; he would had a better score against Carlsen.

Maybe, but then he probably had incredible coaches. I don't think one can become one of the top players in the world by just using static Internet resources and playing and analyzing a lot of games, there is too much to learn to be able to do it without guidance.

False.

Every GM has read at least a single chess book. This I can be sure of. And Hikaru is no exception to this. 

Nakamura says he "looked at" Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games, a Tarrasch book and "some other ones."  He co-wrote Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate.  He also contributed an article to Secrets of Opening Surprises 7, and has annotated a few games for Chessbase magazine.

I have seen him reading a chess book at the Castle Chess Camp in Bradford, Pa.  He was "only" a master then.  His stepfather, Sunil, was a coach at this camp for decades.  Hikaru also had an other brother who was close to master.

How is it possible to learn opening without reading a book

Same thing was said about Capablanca it wasn't true either. 

Naka spent hours every day playing bullet chess on ICC. He didn't spend much time reading books or doing long problems. While I'm sure his claim was an exaggeration, I'm also sure that most of his skill came from the many hours he "wasted" playing bullet chess.