Using “favorite books” data from Facebook and the average SAT/ACT scores from the colleges the people in the data set attend, Virgil Griffith plotted a graph of “books that make you dumb”. Lolita, 100 Years of Solitude, and Crime and Punishment were the “smartest” books while the Zane erotica books are the “dumbest”. (via Kottke.org)
I mentioned this in class, and someone pointed out that both Lolita and 100 Years of Solitude were recently choosen for Oprah’s Book Club, which no doubt skews the results quite heavily. In terms of raw book sales, Oprah is without a doubt the most influential contemporary figure in literary criticism at the moment. Every single book she chooses will be guaranteed a comfortable stay at the top of Amazon.com’s bestseller list.
Reblog: Books That Make You Dumb, Books That Make You Smart
