Does Reading Really Make You a Better Person?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
6,011
Reaction score
1,036
Location
Nashville, TN
Not sure if anyone subscribes to Medium - it's an online community (sort of) where writers and bloggers and authors will write content, sometimes technical, sometimes whimsical, and sometimes serious on a wide variety of subjects. I subscribed to it a while back, and though I don't contribute or visit that much, occasionally titles do catch my eye that make me want to read or explore a little more. It being Friday and all, I did notice a title that caught my eye:

42 Books That Will Make You A Better Person
(Google it for the list of books if you like)

The title made me start thinking about the value of reading in and of itself (not so much to make you a better writer, because I think we all get that...). The question that it raised in my mind is whether reading by itself can make you a better person? I'm not sure I agree. So I started asking myself - what does reading do? I came up with an extensive list, and while it's kind of beyond the scope here to share that entire list - here's my short list of the top three.

Can reading make you:

...more informed? Sure.
...more aware of other perspectives? Of course.
...gain a better understanding of the world? Absolutely.

But does being more informed, more aware, and a better understanding of the world make anyone inherently better as a human being?

My problem with the title of the Medium article is this subjective word of "better". If you were to take inherently evil people, and force them to read 1000 books, would that make them better people? I would submit that no, reading does not make them any better (or worse). Primarily, I came to this conclusion based on the presumption that a person's morality doesn't come from books - it comes from within. But, that's a presumption. So, rather than debate it internally ad infinitum, thought it might make for a better sort of Roundtable Discussion. Hence the presence here in AW Roundtable! :)

Would love to hear others thoughts here. Are there books out there that you think will make anyone a better person? Can one become a better person through reading? Are there any books that changed the essence of who you are and your own outlook on the world or life in general?

Edited to add:
As discussion (hopefully) moves forward, please keep in mind, the goal here is just that - a discussion. Opinions may be shared, and as the mods always say, let's remember to RYFW. :)
 

rusoluchka

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 6, 2017
Messages
159
Reaction score
26
Location
Orange County
I enjoy the pursuit of reading, but as you mentioned, I hesitate to say it makes people better. It can happen, self-help exists for a reason. Reading does offer the broader thinking and perspective on the world, but it really depends on how the reader reacts to the book. Some people could read the same, heartbreaking classic, and come away from it with different reactions. Reading doesn't equal personal improvement. Our processing of the reading and being able to identify the theme, moral, lesson, etc. hinges on our own understanding. Unless the book is designed to brainwash, I just don't see how reading can single-handedly improve someone unless that person is capable of improving themselves.
 

Maze Runner

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
5,489
Reaction score
609
Interesting question. I think any time we can see through another person's set of eyes it can broaden us and make us more empathetic. Reading is one way we can do that, and I'm not even sure it has to be fiction, though I do think the intimacy of fiction can often affect us more profoundly. I think I understand what you mean by morality coming from w/in, as in, who we are in our essence, but where does that come from? other than what we are at birth and how everything we see (etc) affects us from that point on?

I'm not entirely sure how we rank each other or ourselves, or exactly which qualities make us a "better person", but empathy would have to be one of them.
 

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
6,011
Reaction score
1,036
Location
Nashville, TN
I enjoy the pursuit of reading, but as you mentioned, I hesitate to say it makes people better. It can happen, self-help exists for a reason. Reading does offer the broader thinking and perspective on the world, but it really depends on how the reader reacts to the book. Some people could read the same, heartbreaking classic, and come away from it with different reactions. Reading doesn't equal personal improvement. Our processing of the reading and being able to identify the theme, moral, lesson, etc. hinges on our own understanding. Unless the book is designed to brainwash, I just don't see how reading can single-handedly improve someone unless that person is capable of improving themselves.

Excellent point about self-help as a category where the reader would become a better person by fiat. That said, what if a person were forced to read a self-help book? Say, for instance, I was required to read What Color Is Your Parachute as part of a job training program. Would that make me a better person just for reading it? Maybe, but I'd have to be receptive to the change, like you say - it's the persons reaction that matters, and everyone reacts differently.

Interesting question. I think any time we can see through another person's set of eyes it can broaden us and make us more empathetic. Reading is one way we can do that, and I'm not even sure it has to be fiction, though I do think the intimacy of fiction can often affect us more profoundly. I think I understand what you mean by morality coming from w/in, as in, who we are in our essence, but where does that come from? other than what we are at birth and how everything we see (etc) affects us from that point on?

I'm not entirely sure how we rank each other or ourselves, or exactly which qualities make us a "better person", but empathy would have to be one of them.

Interesting that you include empathy as a characteristic or quality of becoming better as a person. While I'm inclined to agree, couldn't we also say that the traits or qualities themselves are also subjective? Just food for thought! :)

As a corollary question to consider (assuming that reading can make you a better person if the person is receptive to such changes), are there any books that gave you a sort of epiphany or changed your world view? If so, feel free to share the epiphany or shift in your perspective that occurred as a result of that reading :)
 

Harlequin

Eat books, not brains!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 21, 2010
Messages
4,584
Reaction score
1,412
Location
The land from whence the shadows fall
Website
www.sunyidean.com
Reading is like education. It can only refine something which is already there.

If your head is an empty cave, no amount of light can discover hidden treasure. If your heart is a dark hole, ditto.

So yes, reading *can* make you better, providing you have anything in you which will benefit from improvement.
 

frimble3

Heckuva good sport
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
11,574
Reaction score
6,396
Location
west coast, canada
Reading is like education. It can only refine something which is already there.

If your head is an empty cave, no amount of light can discover hidden treasure. If your heart is a dark hole, ditto.

So yes, reading *can* make you better, providing you have anything in you which will benefit from improvement.

Agreeing, and adding that for the wrong person, there are probably books that would make them worse. There are people who read 'Les Miserables' as the inspirational story of Jean Valjean, rising above his beginnings to become a better man. There are some who will read it and think that if only Inspector Javert had used a little more force, he could have 'won'.
 

Kjbartolotta

Potentially has/is dog
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
4,197
Reaction score
1,049
Location
Los Angeles
It's an interesting question, because while I rarely think it can make you a worse person, there are certainly books out there that can distort your worldview or influence your thinking in ways that may not be kosher. I am confident in saying no one has become a better person by reading Learned Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Assuming (as we are on a writer's board) this is a community of readers as well, I'll be honest that I worry about about the act of fetishizing reading as a way to feel self-superior. I notice this happens a lot among kids and teens, who love to compare how many books they read and how advanced they are. I've even seen kids bragging about their superior empathy, which is worrisome. This can be mostly put into context, because they're kids, but I think it reflects attitudes they pick up from their parents.

So reading alone cannot make you a better person, and I think it can be dangerous to follow that thread without too much self-refelction. That being said, I am fairly confident reading has made me a better person, so am I more than willing to extend that possibility to other readers as well. I cringe a bit at people saying what books will make you a better person, I can cite several books off that list that I disagree with as texts for self-improvement.

It's a very interesting question to grapple with & one I appreciate the chance to think about. I'm not sure, because years of working at bookstores has convinced me there are tons of well-read monsters out there, and I have even less patience for people who get all Dunning-Krugered-out on they few books they've read and how that separates them from the herd. But overall, my answer is still "yes, it can".

As for what books have changed me? Hmm, have to get back to you, but all those fantasy novels I read as a kid probably had a positive effect on me.
 

frimble3

Heckuva good sport
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
11,574
Reaction score
6,396
Location
west coast, canada
Yep, it depends on the person reading, what they're reading and why. There are people who should never read 'The Prince' and 'The Art of War'.
That classic, the Bible, can either make you a better person, or a smug jerk. ('Holier-than-thou' is a phrase for a reason.)
A book is only a carrier of a message. What readers do with it is up to them.
 

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
6,011
Reaction score
1,036
Location
Nashville, TN
Reading is like education. It can only refine something which is already there.

If your head is an empty cave, no amount of light can discover hidden treasure. If your heart is a dark hole, ditto.

So yes, reading *can* make you better, providing you have anything in you which will benefit from improvement.

Just to play Devil's Advocate here:

So, if a person is an "empty cave", are you saying that nothing can help them? And alternatively, would it be safe to say on this basis that someone must have some bare essence or something within them as a precondition for improvement?

Who would be the arbiter of whether a person is an empty cave or has a bare essence?

Agreeing, and adding that for the wrong person, there are probably books that would make them worse. There are people who read 'Les Miserables' as the inspirational story of Jean Valjean, rising above his beginnings to become a better man. There are some who will read it and think that if only Inspector Javert had used a little more force, he could have 'won'.

Wow - great point, hadn't considered that - would certain books falling into corrupt or evil hands make those sorts of people more corrupt or evil? Always thought of reading as inherently a positive thing, but this is a great point - we certainly could have prevented Ted Kazinsky from his evils if we'd only prevented him from learning how to make bombs!

You know where this is going as the self-assigned Devil's Advocate here, right?

Who would be the arbiter of deciding what books can and cannot be made and who can and cannot read them?

It's an interesting question, because while I rarely think it can make you a worse person, there are certainly books out there that can distort your worldview or influence your thinking in ways that may not be kosher. I am confident in saying no one has become a better person by reading Learned Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Assuming (as we are on a writer's board) this is a community of readers as well, I'll be honest that I worry about about the act of fetishizing reading as a way to feel self-superior. I notice this happens a lot among kids and teens, who love to compare how many books they read and how advanced they are. I've even seen kids bragging about their superior empathy, which is worrisome. This can be mostly put into context, because they're kids, but I think it reflects attitudes they pick up from their parents.

So reading alone cannot make you a better person, and I think it can be dangerous to follow that thread without too much self-refelction. That being said, I am fairly confident reading has made me a better person, so am I more than willing to extend that possibility to other readers as well. I cringe a bit at people saying what books will make you a better person, I can cite several books off that list that I disagree with as texts for self-improvement.

It's a very interesting question to grapple with & one I appreciate the chance to think about. I'm not sure, because years of working at bookstores has convinced me there are tons of well-read monsters out there, and I have even less patience for people who get all Dunning-Krugered-out on they few books they've read and how that separates them from the herd. But overall, my answer is still "yes, it can".

As for what books have changed me? Hmm, have to get back to you, but all those fantasy novels I read as a kid probably had a positive effect on me.

Excellent points - I just re-read The Mouse and The Motorcycle last night. I cried and smiled all over again.
Did that change me as a kid? I don't know...
As an adult? Equally hard to say, except maybe it did because I can appreciate getting lost in a simple escape world where a mouse can talk to a boy and make a toy motorcycle go simply by saying "pb-pb-b-b-b" :)

I've also run across those types of people myself. Part of why I am on my reading mission actually is to assuage my own sense of a lack of awareness that I am not as well read as I should or could be. I also don't like it when people look down at me...so maybe it's to combat that sort of belittling.

Toward that end, maybe those pompous people who look down their noses at others simply because they read book X, Y, or Z are helping the rest of us become better people because it forces us to read - so does that make them bad people?

*****

It's worth noting that in these follow-up questions, I am not agreeing or disagreeing, more just trying to add additional points to consider or reflect on to add fuel to the discussion from those who have already added their own thoughts. :) Good stuff so far!
 
Last edited:

Harlequin

Eat books, not brains!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 21, 2010
Messages
4,584
Reaction score
1,412
Location
The land from whence the shadows fall
Website
www.sunyidean.com
Yep, it depends on the person reading, what they're reading and why. There are people who should never read 'The Prince' and 'The Art of War'.
That classic, the Bible, can either make you a better person, or a smug jerk. ('Holier-than-thou' is a phrase for a reason.)
A book is only a carrier of a message. What readers do with it is up to them.

yep... I mean, Ayn Rand was well educated and well read. All it did was sharpen her nasty side.


So, books that had an effect on me in an ethical sense. Ho hum. Probably Jane Eyre, and the Ecolitan Enigma. I'm not sure those are improvements, as such.

Especially the Ecolitan Enigma, which basically makes the (very convincing) moral case for pre-emptive response in war. But it raised some good questions--namely, if you had to cold-blooded kill thousands of innocent people to save millions of innocent people, would you do so, and would it be right for you to do so; also, why we tend to feel it is wrong to do so. The novel makes a clearcut distinction between the concepts of justice and justification; why the former is desirable and the latter is merely indulgence.
 
Last edited:

Kjbartolotta

Potentially has/is dog
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
4,197
Reaction score
1,049
Location
Los Angeles
yep... I mean, Ayn Rand was well educated and well read. All it did was sharpen her nasty side.

And there are people that read Ayn Rand who...y'know what, I'm not even gonna say it. Part of reading to become a better person is the ability to build up an immunity to certain ideas, or at least examine them in context. I guess breadth of reading and an ability to examine the ideas you're presented with critically is a piece of the puzzle.

Who would be the arbiter of deciding what books can and cannot be made and who can and cannot read them?

Such a legitimate & challenging question.
 
Last edited:

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
6,011
Reaction score
1,036
Location
Nashville, TN
...
Who would be the arbiter of deciding what books can and cannot be made and who can and cannot read them?
...

...
Such a legitimate & challenging question.

Yeah, ok, I was grasping at straws there - because clearly there can be no arbiter of either what can and cannot be written as well as who can and cannot read certain books...

Just trying to keep the dialog/discussion going - if we all agree then it's like preaching to the choir LOL :)
 

Kjbartolotta

Potentially has/is dog
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
4,197
Reaction score
1,049
Location
Los Angeles
No, it's actually a REALLY good question and one I think about constantly selling books to kids and teens. My natural reaction is to get up in arms any time anyone deems themselves the arbiter of what books are important and what are trash and should never be read. That said, there are books I hate the hell out of and teach harmful and negative lessons, and my attitudes have shifted slightly away from being totally laissez faire about this. I mean, would I sell a kid The Turner Diaries? (Bad, hyperbolic example) It's hard, because the slippery slope gets slippery pretty quickly, and I feel it's even important to read bad & harmful books to build up your BS dectector.

Problem is, I don't trust anyone else to make the decision about what I should read or write, so I have to make that my final answer for everyone. But nothing exists in a vaccum.
 

The Black Prince

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 1, 2014
Messages
311
Reaction score
37
Location
Australia
Website
www.adriandeans.com
Define "better".

I'd suggest reading certainly makes you a more developed person, but a "better" person?

I guess in 1938 Germany people regarded themselves as better people once they'd read Mein Kampf but would the same be said today? I'm guessing not but if you read it today (and I read extracts of it when I was at uni...tough going) you would definitely be a more developed person in the context of being able to discuss with authority the politics of the interbellum.
 

Siri Kirpal

Swan in Process
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 20, 2011
Messages
8,943
Reaction score
3,151
Location
In God I dwell, especially in Eugene OR
Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Certain reading has certainly made me better, but I wasn't reading those books wall-to-wall, but open at random. Certain books by certain people will touch certain other people in the heart. This is the goal of my own writing. But that does not mean that all books by all people will reach all other people and lift them up. Nor does it mean that those certain books that can touch people to be better do so for everyone; the Bible being the biggest example as noted upstream.

As to who determines? Oh, no, let's not go there. Even Mein Kampf can make you a better person if you read it and retch. Negative example works wonders for some folks.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

Ravioli

Crazy Cat Lady
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 4, 2015
Messages
2,699
Reaction score
423
Location
Germany, native Israeli
Website
annagiladi.wixsite.com
I don't like this notion. Lots of horrible people are highly intellectual and read more than better people do in a lifetime. Reading can make you more enlightened, but whether it makes you BETTER on a moral level, I highly doubt. We all read what we want to, and we take away from it what we want to.
 

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
6,011
Reaction score
1,036
Location
Nashville, TN
The key I think everyone has hit on is that the word "better" is so subjective. Better in what way?

Better morally?
Better ethically?
Better informatively?
Better educationally?
Better world view?

And what is "better" anyway? What's the standard and to which direction is better or worse?
 

AW Admin

Administrator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
18,772
Reaction score
6,285
There's a lot of research on the effects of reading in terms of psychology. I have some personal issues with the various research projects and methodologies, ranging from the underlying assumptions they make about how people read, what the genre distinctions are, and how they selected and evaluated participants and responses.

But: most of the researches focus on reading and empathy, and suggest that reading fictions specifically improves our abilities in terms of empathy for others.

Scientific American: Novel Finding: Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy

Emanuele Castano, a social psychologist, along with PhD candidate David Kidd conducted five studies in which they divided a varying number of participants (ranging from 86 to 356) and gave them different reading assignments: excerpts from genre (or popular) fiction, literary fiction, nonfiction or nothing. After they finished the excerpts the participants took a test that measured their ability to infer and understand other people’s thoughts and emotions. The researchers found, to their surprise, a significant difference between the literary- and genre-fiction readers.

The genre distinctions and assertions in this article—and their assumptions about popular fiction—have me rolling my eyes and muttering.

The Atlantic Reading Literature Won’t Give You Superpowers
points out that the research has some other problems, too, including problems duplicating the results.

In 2013, a widely publicized study in the journal Science by David Kidd and Emmanuele Castano of the New School suggested that reading “literary” short stories immediately improved participants’ abilities to read the facial expressions, and thus the emotional states, of other people. Several media outlets (The Atlantic included) ran with the idea, embellishing it with headlines like For Better Social Skills, Scientists Recommend a Little Chekhov. Now, a recent study co-authored by Thalia Goldstein of Pace University in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology calls those results into question.

Washington Post Does reading fiction make you a better person?

[Keith Oatley] is a cognitive psychologist at the University of Toronto, a novelist and the author of a new review in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences looking at the psychological effects of fiction. In his review of the past decade of research on the subject, he concludes that engaging with stories about other people can improve empathy and theory of mind.

Oatley's review of the research is here; it's a pay to read, but the abstract is free.

Fiction is the simulation of selves in interaction. People who read it improve their understanding of others. This effect is especially marked with literary fiction, which also enables people to change themselves. These effects are due partly to the process of engagement in stories, which includes making inferences and becoming emotionally involved, and partly to the contents of fiction, which include complex characters and circumstances that we might not encounter in daily life. Fiction can be thought of as a form of consciousness of selves and others that can be passed from an author to a reader or spectator, and can be internalized to augment everyday cognition.

Scientific Amerian's Why Everyone Should Read Harry Potter mostly made me want to see more research, but it is interesting. One of the things about this kind of research in a school setting is that the specific classroom situation makes a difference, though it's obviously hard to control or measure that, because with reading as with life, often what we gain is connected to our situation and specific efforts.

The research group, led by professor Loris Vezzali of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, conducted three related studies. In the first, 34 elementary school children were given a questionnaire assessing their attitudes towards immigrants, a group frequently stigmatized in Italy. The children were then divided into two groups that met once a week for six weeks to read Harry Potter passages and discuss it with a research assistant. One group read passages relating to prejudice, like the scene where Draco Malfoy, a shockingly blond pure-blood wizard, calls Harry’s friend Hermione a “filthy little Mud-blood.” The control group read excerpts unrelated to prejudice, including the scene where Harry buys his first magic wand. A week after the last session, the children’s attitudes towards out-groups were assessed again. Among those who identified with the Harry Potter character, attitudes toward immigrants were found to be significantly improved in children who’d read passages dealing with prejudice. The attitudes of those who’d read neutral passages hadn’t changed.
 
Last edited:

WeaselFire

Benefactor Member
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 17, 2012
Messages
3,539
Reaction score
429
Location
Floral City, FL
Reading The Bible might make you a better person. 50 Shades or the Washington Post, maybe not as much. :)

But reading "should" make you a better writer. If that helps at all.

Jeff
 

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
6,011
Reaction score
1,036
Location
Nashville, TN
Some really good info there Lisa,awesome post! I’d agree that any research where the results can’t be duplicated raises serious concerns in my mind. That said, I would also think that there’s always going to be a certain amount of subjectivity in any study that asks this question specifically. Defining what “better” is just creates such a slippery slope.

While discussion is always good, might there be some questions raised here on this topic that really could never be truly answered from a scientific perspective? It’s not like we’re trying to prove the world isn’t flat, or that A+B=C.

We’re considering the inherently subjective question of whether reading can make someone a better person. It’s likely that as far as generalizations go, and in the most basic conditions one would think yes. But it’s only when you start peeling that onion and consider the different layers, and the myriad of different onions that we start qualifying generalities with the precursor statement of:

”It depends...”
 

Ari Meermans

MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 24, 2011
Messages
12,854
Reaction score
3,057
Location
Not where you last saw me.
I think that's a fair assessment. I keep re-reading Lisa's post and thinking about the quote from Keith Oatley's review of the research:

Fiction is the simulation of selves in interaction. People who read it improve their understanding of others. This effect is especially marked with literary fiction, which also enables people to change themselves. These effects are due partly to the process of engagement in stories, which includes making inferences and becoming emotionally involved, and partly to the contents of fiction, which include complex characters and circumstances that we might not encounter in daily life. Fiction can be thought of as a form of consciousness of selves and others that can be passed from an author to a reader or spectator, and can be internalized to augment everyday cognition.

Rather than assuming this is always true, might it be that readers who are drawn to books with complex characters and circumstances are already empathetic and that reading does, then, augment everyday cognition? I think there must be at least a starting point of empathy to begin that internalization and to be able to recognize similar circumstances in daily life.
 

Marissa D

Scribe of the girls in the basement
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
3,071
Reaction score
365
Location
New England but hankering for the old one
Website
www.marissadoyle.com
As an addendum to Lisa's post in #19, Steven Pinker in The Better Angels of Our Nature posits that the rise of novel reading and increased availability of fiction in the earlier parts of the 19th century--especially Dickens--increased empathy for the poor in the population and encouraged the growth of social service organizations and of the idea of social conscience in general because it allowed people to get into others' lives in a way that they previously hadn't even considered.
 

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
6,011
Reaction score
1,036
Location
Nashville, TN
And the onion peels continue to enlighten... :)
 

DarienW

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 28, 2016
Messages
1,497
Reaction score
242
Location
Los Angeles
So much great stuff in here! I'm enjoying all of it.

I think I've always felt like an outsider, and I think that lent itself to empathy. Two books I read as a grade school student had a profound affect on me. I can't quantify it, but both books, just thinking of them, I get the sads so many years later.

Turns out I'm not alone. On Goodreads I looked up both books and the reviews seemed to agree. I'll add the links if anyone wants to check.

The first one was An Otter's Story by Emil E. Liers

It's out of print, but I found a free download PDF of it. Haven't braved a reread yet (see sads above)


The second one was The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear by Kin Platt

I bought an old paperback of it from Amazon, and I reread it during jury duty a couple years ago (waiting and being dismissed). I was very curious to see why I remembered it so much. I'm still not sure, but I enjoyed rereading it a lot. It's from 1968, so some dated terms are in it, as well as underlining instead of italics. The reviews describe it better than I'm going to. Oddly, when I reread it, I didn't cry, but when I think of it . . . yep, the sads, LOL!

I know I was empathetic before I read both books, and some others, but those stories either helped solidify it in me or enhanced it.

I do agree with all the thoughtful discussion. Who can really know? In my case, I feel it made me more empathetic, and if that's considered better, then yes to OP. (I admit, I think it is, especially for us writers)

And to Jason, I'll devil's advocate here and say, does the age someone reads something make a difference? The Harry Potter study was younger readers.

Again, fascinating discussion!

:Hug2:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.