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The Books That Make You Dumb website correlates the most-read books by college students with the average SAT/ACT scores listed for that college. The result is a pretty chart that shows books (color coded by genre) on a "dumb/smart" scale.
I've taken the science fiction & Fantasy results from the sorted graph and show them here. Perpetuating the unscientific method that the website uses, the resulting list of science fiction books, from "Dumb" to "Not-so-Dumb", are:
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| Posted by John on Sunday January 27, 2008 - 12:25 AM
| Category: Books
| © 2008 SF Signal
Interesting... apparently my reading level lags several hundred points behind my SAT score. 
Posted by Claire on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 1:26 AM
Wondering where the Dresden books puts me...
Posted by platyjoe on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 5:44 AM
You missed the book Fahrenheit 451, the mere reading of which (according to this analysis) makes one dumber than not reading at all. Total silliness but I bet the analysis will stir up a ton of debate in the coming days.
Posted by Jason Sanford on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 8:04 AM
Dune matches Eragon? The mind reels. And jigs.
Posted by Fred Kiesche on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 8:14 AM
After going to their site, I notice a lot of the "dumber" books are the sort that would be assigned for reading in an average English class. What its likely showing is that people that only read what they're assigned do worse than those that do outside reading.
Posted by FYROM on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 9:48 AM
How the hell does "Eragon" make it to the middle of the list? The mind reels indeed.
Posted by Sqt on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 12:48 PM
I think FYROM makes a great point. I'd love to see all the numbers used to create this graph.
Posted by Chuck.nyc on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 1:04 PM
Did you notice that they have a whole other category of SF books? They call it "Dystopian." It includes not only Fahrenheit 451, but also Anthem, A Clockwork Orange, 1984, and Animal Farm.
Posted by Kyle Jelle on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 1:05 PM
Odd that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are so far separated. I read them as one complete series (which was the way they were published, in that four-in-one boxed set).
Posted by Ian Randal Strock on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 7:38 PM
Never mind. Looking more closely, they're only about 50 points apart. Not much of a difference, I guess.
Posted by Ian Randal Strock on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 7:41 PM
Maybe I am geekily over-analyzing, but I would think that the type of books you read might affect the reading part of the SAT, but not the math scores...and their chart shows combined.
Posted by Larry on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 10:22 PM
There's actually a few more SF&F books that aren't in the Science Fiction/Fantasy color as they're under other genres such as Farenheit 451 and Animal Farm under "Dystopian", A Wrinkle in Time and The Giver under "Children's Lit", etc. but overall it's an LOL.
Posted by Charles on Sunday January 27, 2008 at 11:58 PM
These people have their correlation reversed!
Come on, this is less of a case of books that make you dumb, then the kind of books that people at various levels of perceived intelligence read. The Chronicles of Narnia are not perceived as intellectually challenging, so they attract people with lower skills. The same thing goes with the disparity between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
On the other hand, Atlas shrugged was near the top, which probably follows it's general publicity that it is a major egghead work, attracting people who think they are smart enough to read it (although if you are actually smart enough to read it, then you are most likely smart enough to avoid it.)
Posted by Aaron on Monday January 28, 2008 at 12:06 PM
Did anyone, anyone happen to notice that the books listed are supposed to be the readers "Favorite" books? Not their only source reading. One of my favorite books is "I know why the caged bird sings". Why? Because of where I come from. Do I dare to believe that anyone who doesn't read it is more or less intelligent then someone who has read the complete works of W. Shakespeare? No. (I own, and have read the complete works).It is one of my favorites because it strikes a chord with me. That's it.
Reading any books makes you smarter.
LS
Posted by Logan Starrider on Saturday February 09, 2008 at 3:53 PM