Few people actually read. Instead, everyone likes pretending they read. If we spent as much time reading as we say we do, we’d be grossly overweight and depressed.

Another case for the dumbness of reading, however, is that books do not contain answers, but rather pose more questions. And asking questions makes you look dumber, not smarter. I thought Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland...

Even when there were good wars to write about, writers such as Jane Austen wrote novels concerning marriage. They usually went like this:’You’re being a real jerk.”Sorry about that. I was secretly helping you.”Oh, you’re...