First, it would be interesting if there was a way to note what books were read in high school, what books were read in college classes, and what books were read outside of the classroom. Like Tomecat said in the comments above, a major part of this is exposure- which to a certain degree is not under our control.

Also, I’d just like to point out that the very question, “What is/are your favorite books” is unanimously hated by myself and everyone I know who likes to read. It’s an awful question. There are so many good books in all genres but trying to pick one (or a few) is like building a zoo and putting one animal in it. But… it’s asked. Inevitably in trying to respond there will be posturing, partly as an adaptation to the circumstances (cocktail party vs. little kid’s birthday party, for example), a tailoring of one’s response to the other person (intimidating and erudite new acquaintance or 7-year old girl, to continue the analogy), and yes, just plain trying to make yourself look good. So, a genuine answer is difficult for two reasons- first, the question is bad and second, we answer to tell the person something more than a title (“I read classics in their original language, so rewarding!” “When I was your age I loved to read stories about horses”)

In making a Facebook profile, you aren’t responding to a single person. So “Favorite Books” usually becomes a weird pastiche of what you’ve most recently read, what some teacher forced you to look at closely to the point where familiarity becomes favorite, and books you discovered and read for yourself at a key time, usually adolescence (for example, that last one for me would be Ender’s Game but for a lot of kids wouldn’t it be Harry Potter, Eragon, Twilight?)

And another thing- it seems like, as a culture (and I’m not familiar with sociological terms) we approach reading as a singular event, consuming one heavily hyped- either by prestige as in the classics or some new, topically relevant- book after another.

Rereading doesn’t play a huge role generally and I include myself in this, even though the few times I’ve read a book more than once, my understanding of the author, the characters, and the story increased tenfold.

We don’t reach for books the way we reach for that CD or DVD.

Two questions I like better and find more revealing are to ask someone “What books have you read more than once?” and “What books have you given to people?”

Ok, that’s my two cents.

But it would be absurd to suggest that the books a young person reads most intently – the ‘favorites’ rather than the half-digested classroom assignments – don’t have a direct impact on scores in a test that is 50% verbal skills.

Coincidentally, Marquez and Nabokov – the authors favored at the top end of the graph – happened to be my favorite writers at SAT age as well. The fact that their writing styles require extraordinary attention to complex sentence structure and use particularly esoteric vocabulary suggests that teenagers who enjoy their books have the verbal skills that predispose them to doing particularly well on that portion of the test. (As it were, my verbal score was perfect; math, not so much!)

I grew up in a household so poor that we couldn’t afford a TV for much of my formative years, which is probably why I was reading more than the average kid. I realize this is not a statistically common scenario, but it does make me cringe at the association between class and taste in literature.

Unrelated: do you think we can start deleting obvious troll comments? They’re getting a little old.

No. I am working class, but my reading is as varied as the shelves of a well stocked library. I’ve read classics by authors like Jane Austen, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Charles Dickens, but I also love to delve into the likes of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series or Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series for a bit of easy going light reading.

*drumroll*

Star Wars and Dragonlance books. (Timothy Zahn and Weis & Hickman were the best)
Ender’s Game gets an honorable mention.

How do people actually finish Crime and Punishment, anyway? Nothing happens for like 400 pages.

I liked the chart, it’s funny and cute.

If you really want to do well at the SAT’s, just know 2 different ways to do every math problem and be fast enough to use both. (In my year, a single wrong answer would tank your math score down to 770) For the verbal, read a ton. (In my year, you could miss 3 verbal questions and still get an 800).

Question: What are your favorite books?

Yes, you are right. Booksthatmakeyoudumb, as well as the feedback on this blog, amuse me immensely.

People may take my work as jocular or seriously as they please. I draw no boxes to think within.

Much love,
-Virgil