How cool that self-described “word nerd” rocker David Cook claimed the American Idol crown last night. Remember when Simon Cowell rolled his eyes and berated Cook back in February after the singer revealed that he enjoys crossword puzzles in between performances?

Last night the smart kid with a heart of gold pulled off the biggest upset in Idol history. “I started this season, much to Simon’s chagrin, as a word nerd,” a stunned Cook told 33 million TV viewers. “But I’m absolutely at a loss for words right now.”

Dana Gioia, were you watching?

Gioia, of course, is the California poet who runs the National Endowment for the Arts and has made improving America’s literacy a central mission of his tenure.

I say it’s time for Dana and David to do lunch — and to enlist the new American Idol to get America reading again. David Cook could be the perfect poster boy for the NEA’s coast-to-coast Big Read.