Here's an interesting tidbit from the November/December 2011 issue of
Scientific American Mind:
Reading fiction can strengthen your social ties and even change your personality by Keith Oatley.
Oatley claims that contrary to popular belief, reading fiction can actually make you more sociable, improve your people-skills, and even alter your personality. It seems that fiction readers are even better than average on reading people's emotions from just looking at photographs of their eyes.
Hey—we're the "in" crowd!