Will You Live Longer If You Read War and Peace?
 

Can you change your general cognitive ability? The answer for high school, college and university students is a resounding yes, and maybe even to a sizable degree. IQ has a mean ranking of 100, the average numerical score. Nearly everybody understands the scale. The issue of change has always centered around parental IQ inheritance and adult scoring modifications. Children’s score to a degree rests on parental gene factors and a solid home foundation. Adults however can score valid change as they evolve. Once thought immutable, research shows certain activities, what we want to call, broadly speaking, Puzzle Solving, can effect mental processes which alter IQ upwards. The reverse is also true. Non-activity in Puzzle Solving events decreases ranking. The brain organ needs to exert itself, and to do so in a strenuous manner. You’ve heard the old cliche of no pain no gain in regards to your physical fitness. It’s true for your mental abilities as well. You aren’t bound by your genetics, high school education or economic circumstances. Solid scientific correlations exist between your IQ ranking and shifts in your intelligence, health, longevity, economic independence and self-image. Get smarter and these improve. The higher your ranking, the stronger the correlations. They are most effected upward by reading, and in particular, self-motivated reading above one’s ranking, i.e., comprehending intellectual matters outside one’s intellectual comfortableness. Another way of saying it: to get smarter you must suffer through a lot of conceptual confusion and complexity until you begin solving the “ultimate” puzzle.

Reading fine literature, science, philosophy, politics, ethics and other controversial subjects elevates the whole experience of the self. The mind expands over time, solving or trying to solve, the gigantic organic puzzles of life. The brain must ply its trade – earn its keep – and do so without immediate gratification.

Will you live longer if you read War and Peace? If you read The Power and the Glory, Crime and Punishment, Of Mice and Men, Pride and Prejudice, The Sound and the Fury, Fathers and Sons and hundreds of other works normally referred to as heady or heavy reading, then likely you are conceptually puzzle solving at the highest level. Therefore you are affecting an upward IQ event over time in yourself. Thus you fall into the correlation between IQ and longevity.

Will you achieve economic independence if you read John C. Bogle’s The Little Book of Common Sense Investing? If you are reading A Random Walk Down Wall Street, What Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know, Crash Proof, Capitalism Socialism and Democracy, Economic Sophisms, The Wealth of Nations, Human Action, Man Economy and State, Capitalism and Freedom, Classical Economics Reconsidered, Individualism and Economic Order and other works by economists, then you are puzzle solving.

Will your health increase if you read Dr. George Watson’s Nutrition and Your Mind? Then take a stab at Fast Food Nation, How to Eat, The Complete Family Health Guide, Eating Well for Optimum Health and other health related works. You’ll be puzzle solving.

Have you increased your intelligence if you understand A Brief History of Time, The Concept of Mind, What is the Theory of Relativity?, Physics for Poets, Origins of Life, The Theory of Evolution, A History of Knowledge, Physics for Poets, The Blind Watchmaker, A Short History of Progress, Sweet Dreams, Reason and Analysis and other such complex works? If you increase your fundamental knowledge based on arduous reading – reading difficult and complex subject matters – your intelligence is increasing; you’re becoming smarter, your self-image is growing.

Is it work? Maybe even hard work. Nonetheless, the habit of reading in this manner is an award beyond any material calculation. It will put you to sleep and it will wake you up. Can you start the habit? Get a random list of 35 must-read books (like the 35 mentioned above; see below), and start reading.

War and Peace, Leon Tolstoy
The Power and the Glory, Graham Green
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, John C. Bogle
A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Burton Malkiel
What Wall Street Doesn’t Want you to Know, Larry E. Swedroe
Crash Proof, Peter Schiff
Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Peter Schumpeter,
Economic Sophisms, Frédéric Bastiat
The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Human Action, Ludwig von Mises
Man Economy and State, Murray Rothbard
Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman
Classical Economics Reconsidered, Thomas Sowell
Individualism and Economic Order, Friedrich August Hayek
Nutrition and Your Mind, Dr. George Watson
The Complete Family Health Guide, Dorling Kindersley
Eating Well For Optimum Health, Dr. Andrew Weil
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser
How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food, N Lawson & A Boehm
A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
The Concept of Mind, Gilbert Ryle
What is the Theory of Relativity? Albert Einstein
Origins of Life, J M Smith & E Szathmáry
The Theory of Evolution, Cynthia Mills
A History of Knowledge, Charles Van Doren
Physics for Poets, Robert March
The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins
A Short History of Progress, Ronald Wright
Sweet Dreams, Daniel C Dennett
Reason and Analysis, Brand Blanshard