Why Non Fiction readers must not Undermine the Importance of Fiction -Part 1

Imagine a lush green park. In this scene, there are two people.

One is lazing around with a copy of Harry Potter in his hand while the other just entered with his earphones blasting the voice of Mark White narrating the book, The Power of the Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy.

They both settle on a bench, reading/listening when they notice each other. Non Fiction reader looks at the Fiction reader’s book and gives a condescending smirk. Fiction reader just looks appalled but then again shakes his head and dives back into the book without a word.

This is a scenario that most of you would have experienced. You might be either one of the people, both silently judging each other. This attitude comes from, no, not ego, but complete ignorance.

Both categories of books have their own benefits but today’s article is stresses more on the importance of fiction for non fiction readers.

1. Emotions: While non fiction offers a directive towards a particular task, fiction personifies the same thing through characters and their interactions with the world. A non-fiction book might describe love in a number of ways, glorifying it in millions of cascading letters overlapping over one another. While it achieves this, fiction describes a story of a service dog taking on 3 armed men to save his blind companion & succeeding only after being shot. It doesn’t struggle with pain but drags itself, lies its head on her lap & dies peacefully.
2. Character: Non Fiction offers the experience of one person through words which is hard to associate with unless you are in a similar situation. Fiction creates a situation which is led to through a character’s journey and later the situation is solved using the expertise of the character. There is a resonation between the two categories but from a more practical angle, Fiction takes the prize.
3. Submergence: Though Non Fiction books are interesting to read, getting into them causes an overload of information that ultimately leads to an aversion of the book itself. Fiction on the other hand balances the intrigues, the knowledge share and takes you on a stroll while in reality you are bungee jumping right into the story
4. Creativity: Books on creativity vs Books written creatively. That says it all. Our brains are programmed to notice and grasp information that is really out there and nothing says out there than a creative writing style. Though Non fiction supply a direct stream of information to your brain, subtle cues and sub conscious learning is only possible through fiction.
5. Fun: What’s more fun, reading a book on sentimental rocks or reading a book on a journey to the center of the earth? You decide.

This article is meant to encourage people to pick up more works of fiction. Some of the books that offer heavy insights are Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Help by Kathryn Stockett and The Vegetarian by Han Kang.

Happy Reading.