Reading literary fiction makes people more empathetic—or so I've heard for years, but my own experience with book clubs suggests otherwise. We all read the same novel, yet our discussions often reveal wildly different moral judgments about the characters. If literature truly built empathy, wouldn't heavy readers show measurably better social skills in studies? Some research points that way, but other studies find no effect, and I wonder if we're just telling ourselves a flattering story about our favorite hobby.