<p>Reading was once regarded as a dangerous vice before the advent of television. It was not until recent times that reading was thought of as a virtue of sorts.</p>
<p>Robert E Lee once said that reading dulls the mind, or something to that effect. I tend to agree with him. For starters, a board like this can suck in all of a nerd's time because he's hooked on reading it.......</p>
<p>well, it would matter what kind of reading for the most part, but i disagree. Reading posts in the college admissions topic would probably be a lot more helpful academically than the high school life board. But if someone really needed advice about a high school issue i.e. "should I break up with my boyfriend" it certainly wouldn't be a bad thing for their mental health (putting things into another perspective)to read possible advice given on that board. </p>
<p>Now, most CC'ers would argue that CC has helped them in some way whether as a mind-numbing, dulling way to pass time avoiding dreadful homework or giving real advice. I'd say it would never hurt your mind, because you are still learning (though it may not always have practical usage)</p>
<p>Learning....but not thinking, per se? I think Lee and others believed back in the day that reading made you less able to think for yourself.</p>
<p>Well look where that kind of thinking got him ;). </p>
<p>They thought it dulled the mind because books are essentially telling you what to think.</p>
<p>I still love reading though.</p>
<p>ehhh..everyone thinks. Whether it is about meaningful stuff, stuff out of books, or hormonal processes, our brains still think no matter what. I could not live without reading, so I don't really care if it "dulls my mind" or not</p>
<p>reading may dull your mind, but it boosts your SAT scores. so whatever.</p>
<p>^ Exactly what kind of reading boosts your SAT scores? Good fiction-literature books? Or death-penalty/philosophy?</p>
<p>Anything with vocabulary.</p>
<p>Well, what was there to read back then? </p>
<p>IMO, reading lots of fiction for hours and hours might make you seem a touch 'out of it', although I still think it's fun to do. I do think if you do this a lot though that it might not be beneficial, because you are focusing for lengthy periods of time on one kind of stimulation--the static page-- instead of having to filter/make sense of all the stimuli in a group get-together, or some other shifting situation.</p>
<p>Re the vocab acquisition, reading fiction is as useful for that purpose as any other reading material.</p>
<p>Wow. This is new info to me. I've grown up being taught that the more you read the faster you get in reading and the more knowledgable you are thus receiving a higher SAT score. We all know that to attain a better score one must know how to read the material at a certain pace.</p>
<p>Most anything is harmful at extremes, in my opinion, and reading fiction is no exception. I've seen a few people who after too much reading end up lost in the fantasy worlds of the books. It's a shame, really. Even those who read nothing but classic literature have that problem: most classic literature has social commentary relating to something negative about society that must be fixed, and this really seems to turn some people into ridiculous conspiracy theorists.</p>
<p>I think with limits, for those who are interested (not me) reading fiction is a fantastic way to expand your mind and/or entertain yourself, though by no means as wonderful as some people seem to suggest, at least not beyond elementary and middle school level. But it's all about avoiding long-term extremes.</p>
<p>The suggestion that reading in its entirety inhibits your personal thinking sounds silly to me: it's human to learn from others and to process that information into one's own thoughts.</p>
<p>"Who consorts with the wise will wise become." - Menander</p>
<p>That goes for books, too.</p>
<p>I was speaking from personal experience. </p>
<p>I was in libraries at a very young age, and to have fun at my house you had to read--that was the extent of the entertainment on any random day, although on rare occasions we did something. I really started to get underway with reading around age 9 or 10, I would read for 10 hours at a stretch all weekends and summers.</p>
<p>My d did the same thing, but even younger. I noticed that she is a bit 'spacy' as I was. My mom used to say 'relate to your surroundings' to me, that kind of thing. I'm pretty sure it was all the reading, which I and especially my d did a ton of early on in life.</p>
<p>For most people, reading should be encouraged. In this day and age, people sure don't do enough. And the only way to score well on SATs and make it thru college is to have great reading comprehension, which means lots of reading. But not to the extent that I did. </p>
<p>All things in moderation--oh, yeah, that is the key.</p>
<p>There's a girl I really like who shuts herself in her library and does nothing but read all day long. She's sharp, but I can't believe her days aren't dull.</p>
<p>Now, video games, THOSE dull the mind.
I would know, having overindulged myself these past several weeks -_-</p>
<p>I came across this book at the library a while ago called The Solitary Vice. It was about reading and its history and compared reading to masturbation.</p>
<p>I think this depends at least partially on the way you read. For instance, when I read any kind of fiction I imagine the characters and settings, as well as actually play out many scenes in my head. This kind of visualization definitely takes up some time, but it exercises the mind. Also, when I read serious fiction literature, I analyze the themes, characters' dilemmas and feelings, etc. and try to figure out my own thoughts on whatever the author is proposing. Sometimes, I make up my own characters that complement those in the book and put them together in new settings, trying to figure out what they would do in a particular situation based on the information that's already available. There have been books in the past that have managed to make me see certain topics in a whole new light, so I definitely do not think that reading dulls your mind.</p>
<p>it really depends on what you read. a philosophical novel (like the brothers karamazov, crime and punishment or anything by dostoevsky) will surely enlighten you and broad your perspective. yet, if you read stuff like jane eyre, madame bovary, pride and prejudice ("romantic" classics) i think that they might dull the mind. or badly written-structured-plotted novels, in that sense, not to say that the three boks i've mentioned are like that.</p>
<p>"madame bovary"</p>
<p>Clearly, sir, you didn not read Madame Bovary closely enough if you consider it an "easy" novel.</p>
<p>i didn't consider it easy, i just find it a little monotonous and dull-not stimulating and not giving the reader a lot to ponder about. it's one of the best novels i have read, however, and since i read it for IB, i think that i read it more than closely enough.</p>
<p>"not giving the reader a lot to ponder about"</p>
<p>Again, I think you missed the novel's intention. Besides being an obvious criticism of the late-19th century French society, the book was about human beings - their choices, their limitations, their struggles, their mistakes, and their guilt. Of course, it probably didn't offer you any philosophical insight into new ideas that you might not have pondered before (like Dostoevsky's works), but the very way in which you perceived each character of Madame Bovary should have shown you something about yourself, if you had looked closely enough.
I'm sorry if you disagree, but this book certainly did not dull my mind, which is why I think we read it differently.</p>