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Old 01-25-2008, 06:09 PM   #1
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Books That Make You Dumb
I came across this today, and got a kick out of it.

Quote:
Ever read a book (required or otherwise) and upon finishing it thought to yourself, "Wow. That was terrible. I totally feel dumber after reading that."? I know I have. Well, like any good scientist, I decided to see how well my personal experience matches reality. How might one do this?

Well, here's one idea.

1. Get a friend of yours to download, using Facebook, the ten most popular books at every college (manually -- as not to violate Facebook's ToS). These ten books are indicative of the overall intellectual milieu of that college.
2. Download the average SAT/ACT score for students attending every college.
3. Presto! We have a correlation between books and dumbitude (smartitude too)!

Books <=> Colleges <=> Average SAT Scores

4. Plot the average SAT of each book, discarding books with too few samples to have a reliable average.
5. Post the results on your website, pondering what the Internet will think of it.
http://booksthatmakeyoudumb.virgil.gr/
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Old 01-26-2008, 07:20 AM   #2
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Interesting. There were a couple of surprising results, too.

I see two problems with this, though. First, correlation is not causation. Second, are we sure that the ten most popular books (as listed for each college on Facebook, no less) are indicative of the overall intellectual milieu of that college?

Still, it certainly was worth a look. :-)
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Old 01-26-2008, 12:54 PM   #3
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Caltech is the smartest school. I'm surprised there's no non-fiction on that list.
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Old 01-26-2008, 01:24 PM   #4
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Cute. I assume "I Don't Read" (at about SAT = 970) means just that and is not a book title. Hmmm. Must find something to stimulate my brain. Ah, yes. Lolita (SAT = 1300+), here I come!
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Old 01-26-2008, 01:33 PM   #5
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Hmmm. Must find something to stimulate my brain. Ah, yes. Lolita (SAT = 1300+), here I come!
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Old 01-26-2008, 11:26 PM   #6
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Cute. I assume "I Don't Read" (at about SAT = 970) means just that and is not a book title. Hmmm. Must find something to stimulate my brain. Ah, yes. Lolita (SAT = 1300+), here I come!
I have no idea why 'Lolita' is categorized as 'Erotica' in the chart. It's not, certainly. It *is* a fantastic book. You could certainly do worse for your brain than reading Nabokov :-)

And I do recognize that the survey is tongue-in-cheek, but still... I think that's cheapening the work.
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Old 01-27-2008, 02:35 AM   #7
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I feel dumber jus from readin this thred!!
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Old 01-27-2008, 07:32 AM   #8
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I feel dumber jus from readin this thred!!
I agree. And welcome back Roy.
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Old 01-27-2008, 05:46 PM   #9
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JS... I've been here lurking. Since Patricia started her prolific book formatting all I have to do is download books rather than format them. THANKS PATRICIA! Most of the books I want to read in PD are already done so I've been doing far more reading than posting or creating books. Plus I got a new laptop with Vista on it. Its Wi=fi so its real easy to lay on the couch and read with the laptop. PDF's work real good on it.

I am having a problem with this laptop htough, book designer wont work on it. I went through that thread on BD and Vista and tried a bunch of stuff you experts recommended and still couldn't get it to work so I am still using my PC to create books.

My next project is going to be Paradise Lost by Milton. There are some greaat Dore sites with all his drawings on the web so I need to go fetch them and then do an illustrated version, (unless Patricia beats me to it!! Hint hint Patricia.. ((I know I know I'm being lazy and not hauling my fair share of the book creating load)) but I'm sure that once she reads this she will be like a hound dog on a scent runnin down the dore illustratins and having Paradise up in a matter of fifteen minutes or so.. LOL)
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Old 01-27-2008, 08:16 PM   #10
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I've got a free afternoon on Wednesday, so I'll see what's available.

I'm running out of Wilkie Collins and steadily getting through Henry James, so it will be nice to try something a bit different.
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Old 01-28-2008, 01:18 PM   #11
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Shouldn't the university reading level also be weighted inversely proportional to the success of their sports teams?

If you had asked me my favorites in college it would have been influenced heavily by high testosterone levels.
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Old 01-28-2008, 07:49 PM   #12
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LOL!!
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