Books that make you dumb

via the Wall Street Journal, (Books and Music That Make You Dumb), introducing Virgil Griffith and his site, booksthatmakeyoudumb.virgil.gr. He has mashed up data from Facebook (where people go to school and their stated favorite books) with the average SATs for each of those schools to come up with a "Smartest" books and "Dumbest" books. Fascinating. So many different ways to examine the world. Be sure to check his FAQ for some general observations and dicussion. While rigorous, it is not necessarily "accurate" but like all such lists interesting to see one's own choices confirmed and surprising to see what else shows up.

I have taken the liberty of marking the top 100 books based on whether they are either considered children's books or are commonly read by children. On that basis, the most popular twenty-five childrens/YA books of college graduates are:

Harry Potter
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Catcher In The Rye
1984
The Great Gatsby
Pride And Prejudice
The Lord Of The Rings
The Giver
The Chronicles Of Narnia
Brave New World
Enders Game
Of Mice And Men
Jane Eyre
The Kite Runner
Animal Farm
Catch 22
Crime And Punishment
The Hobbit
The Count Of Monte Cristo
The Alchemist
Alice In Wonderland
Eragon
A Clockwork Orange
C.S. Lewis
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

In terms of the "smartest" children's books, they are:

Lolita
100 Years Of Solitude
Crime And Punishment
Catch 22
Atlas Shrugged
The Alchemist
Enders Game
East Of Eden
Pride And Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Great Gatsby
The Kite Runner
1984
Anna Karenina
The Catcher In The Rye
The Lord Of The Rings
A Wrinkle In Time
Shakespeare
Quiet On The Western Front
Alice In Wonderland
To Kill A Mockingbird
Brave New World
On The Road
Harry Potter
Dune