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Why do you read fiction?

steffee

steffee

Active Member
I got asked today, why I read fiction. I was in the middle giving a huge response, involving just how fantastic books, and reading is, when I was interrupted with...

"but why fiction? why not stick to none-ficiton?"

So why do we read fiction? :confused:
 
I really don't like to read about movie stars, eccentric people, sad dog stories, and people who died or just about did.

I like fiction because it entertains me and makes me imagine if it could be true without the reality that it is. It's not boring, it's colorful, and most of the books I read keep me guessing. It's my preference.:)
 
I think the tie between humans and fiction goes all the way back to creation. We've always used stories to convey truth, whether to children or adults. Non Fiction is one tool to use to learn about the world around us, and fiction is a way to discover and explore truths about ourselves.
 
Great answers! The question totally threw me and has left me wondering about it all day. I like the answer about learning more about ourselves through fiction. I think that's very true. And as for escaping reality, we all need to forget about the "real world" sometimes. Yeah it's great to be made to keep guessing, too. And I agree, books are colourful :D
 
I like to read both. Non-fiction, because it is knowledge. Fiction because it takes me into another place/life. Anything can happen in fiction, whereas non-fiction by definition, is limited to "reality". I guess it's for the same reason that people love watching movies - it's just enjoyable. :)
 
The best way I can describe it is being the difference between watching a documentary or a movie. Real life tends to get boring, that's where fiction plays a role.
 
I think fiction and non-fiction are both exercises in exploring reality. While non-fiction presents reality in a "here are the facts as we see them" style, fiction allows the reader to come to their own understanding of reality.

I prefer fiction, purely because I have yet to read a non-fiction book that has allowed me to experience the feeling of taking an excellent passage from it and applying it to my own way of looking at reality.

Maybe it's because fiction is also free to be much more subjective. A non-fiction book that skewed facts wouldn't be respected, but fiction allows the writer (and reader) to really dig into their soul (or whatever) and explore what they think about life, the universe...and everything:)
 
It's practically all the Simpsons family in one short thread. Quick! Where are Marge and Homer?
 
I love fiction and nonfiction.

But I'm on a fiction kick lately because fiction is always fun, even when my life is boring. I love the feeling and the perspective of seeing life through another's eyes, even if they're not entirely real eyes. :cool:
 
Make it your own

I don't have any real definiton but I do know that with Fiction you can make it your own, it allows you to think beyond the actual story. Make it your own and will probably allow you to make a better understanding of the book.
 
I read fiction because...like I'm sure someone has said or will say...sometimes it's a great thing to be taken away to a completely different place. Sometimes a place that could be reality, sometimes a place that will never occur or never did occur. It's like mind travelling!
 
For me, it's the ability to escape my own reality and go into somebody else's, even if it is for a moment. I generally don't read non-fiction, but read it if the author is known in a field and if a book gets press about it and then I see how I feel.

I think it's just to dissolve into another reality that doesn't exist and to be absorbed by that reality, same reason I suppose that I watch TV dramas (really they are just night time soaps): purely for escape, but also in a small way to learn something (at times).:cool:
 
It's creative, which puts it ahead of most non-fiction "just the facts ma'am" material. Fiction is also appealing in that you can have more than one philosophical item or issue discussed in a subtle way.
 
brainstorm said:
The best way I can describe it is being the difference between watching a documentary or a movie. Real life tends to get boring, that's where fiction plays a role.
Click to expand...

I agree. Good analogy! I read fiction to escape. Reading about other people's (fictionalized) troubles is a good way to forget about my own. I like fiction where people who do wrong get what's coming to them, since it so often doesn't turn out that way in real life.
 
SFG75 said:
It's creative, which puts it ahead of most non-fiction "just the facts ma'am" material. Fiction is also appealing in that you can have more than one philosophical item or issue discussed in a subtle way.
Click to expand...

But don't you think that non-fiction can also be creative and philosophical?
 
I remember when I was about 20 I mentioned to my older sister that I hadn't read anything fictional in a while, and she off-handedly told me that adults always read mostly nonfiction. I think she's partly right - I never read nonfiction as a kid, but now I'm as likely to browse there as with the novels. But fiction is my first love, and while I appreciate nonfiction of various genres, none of it is as good or worthwhile as fiction. The problem, I think, is that it's so much harder to find good fiction than it is to find good nonfiction. There are objective standards of good writing for both, of course, but while any accessible 'written for the mass market' nonfiction will be a solid read, a fiction work can speak worlds to one person and leave another cold - and even worse, that changes throughout your life, so that some books give you nothing at one age but everything at another.

But why fiction? Practicality. For some reason, seeking truth and beauty through lies and invention is more effective.
 
Non-fiction gives you chance to explore the dreams being imagined inside the writer's head which he/she is sharing with you on paper. I sometimes like to get an idea of how a writer is as a person and how he thinks. That can be easier at times, but not so easy at other times :)

But, yeah, escapism into the realm of that which might just be possible.
 
Fiction/Non-fiction

Both fiction and non-fiction are important, of course.

But I get cross - no, I get livid - with people who look down on fiction slightly, and consider 'factual' books somehow superior. This seems to be missing the point in a spectacular fashion.

Reading a book should not always be about 'finding out something new'. What would be the purpose in that? Reading is about living. Fiction allows one to experience emotional and spiritual journeys that one would never have been able to undertake - never could have imagined taking - otherwise. They allow expansion and growth of that mysterious spark inside you that you call 'yourself'. Fiction is, in a very real sense, life itself.

I have learned vastly more about the world wars from reading fiction set in those conflicts, than I have from all the documentaries and 'factual' books about that I've encountered. For example, 'Birdsong' may not be factually correct, but it is devastatingly true.
 
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