Quote:
Originally Posted by dmaul1114
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If you want to be an intellectual, get into science, research, and other intellectual topics and leave the literature for entertainment IMO. I basically view fiction reading the same I do movies, TV, video games etc. Entertainment/art, not something I do to expand my intellect....
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I'd argue that "intellectual" refers more often to someone with a broad range of ccross-disciplinary knowledge, rather than to someone with a narrow, specialized focus.
The latter would be generally referred to as "professional," or a "scientist," and often may not necessarily be a welcome addition to a broad-scope erudite discourse.
There are a number of studies, showing that increased leisure reading among children corresponds to increased performance on standardized tests (although this may be attributable to genetics, or to socioeconomic circumstances, or to all of the above).
This article may (or may not:-) support the correlation between the decline of leisure reading, among other things, and the decline in SAT-verbal scores.