<p>@fireandrain: </p>
<p>I’m actually a sucker for asking about reading habits. Most of the people I know (friends and foe alike) from Brown and other top/peer schools are exceptionally curious people, whether or not they’re former, current, or potential English majors. That curiosity often manifests itself through reading–books, blogs, mags, or whatever. </p>
<p>I’m skeptical of the intellectual curiosity of someone who doesn’t seek out knowledge outside of what is required in school. If you’re a senior who is struggling to come up with the name of a single book read for pleasure, that raises a red flag for me about suitability at the top colleges. You will drown there. </p>
<p>[It doesn’t have to be books obviously. Someone who spends time tinkering with electronics, or writing albums and albums worth of songs, or collecting specimens of leaves from his/her neighborhood and categorizing them…these can all serve as proxies for ‘curiosity’. But I haven’t met too many people who do these things who also aren’t also voracious readers.]</p>