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As of late, I’ve been only interested in non-fiction. If you follow the blog, that probably isn’t a surprise to you (The Feminist Porn Book, Secret Sex Lives, Perv, etc.). I find it interesting that I’m in a non-fiction phase because I’ve never had it before. I hated reading non-fiction (even though I enjoyed learning). My heart was set only on fiction and the more fantasy-like the better.
Somehow this flipped a few months ago and now I can’t imagine picking up a fiction book (at least for a little while longer). I think it has to do with not being at university. I technically started again this week, so maybe my non-fiction interests will wither, but I had been university-free for nearly four months. I think that when I am not learning, I want to learn through my books. And when I am busy with university or school, I want to run away to fiction (instead of learning in my leisure time).
I’m sure I’m not the only one with this relationship with my fiction/non-fiction genres. Are you similar? Do you read ONLY fiction or non-fiction or do you alternate? Let us know in the comments below! 🙂
– Ermisenda
Ermilia 
Don’t you find, even with fiction, you can read on and on. a certain genre, or biographies, or DIY, or {fill in a genre)? and then you move on? 😮
Yeah, I find I often get obsessed over a certain genre and read many books just in that category.
I read a lot of fiction when I was younger and I feel like I have learned a lot from fictional stories: How characters dealt with certain situations, what it was like to be another person in another time, a kind of cool martial arts technique I have used with astonishing success. No one was hurt, the technique throws a person off balance with relative ease, it is a kind of cool party trick if you fight at parties.
Similarly, ever since I started back to school over a year ago I have only read maybe one and three-quarters worth of fictional books but have been reading non-fiction constantly: How to books, academic study books, internet and magazine articles, catalogs of materials. I read this type of literature with the intention of bettering the work I produce or to find a better ways to do things. With the knowledge acquired from these readings I imagine what I could do with this something I have never known before. If that makes sense; imagine my own stories. I learned how read so now I can write. I learned about plants so now I can plant peppers and maybe harvest them successfully to eat.
I read a fictional story recently named “Call of the Wild” by Jack London and I was able to finish it in a few hours. I learned a little bit about patience and persistence, what arrogance looks like and a little about leadership. Try learning patience and persistence from “Patience and Persistence for Dummies”
It felt really good to finish a story.
For me, I may have just forgotten thrill of a good novel-length story. I do not feel an opposite attraction: when I do this I want to do that. George Halas once said “Nothing is work unless you’d rather be doing something else.” So whatever it is you are doing, never be working.
Dang I had no intention of writing so many words into this annoyingly small comment box. I claim no ownership over the ideas I attempted to convey because I’m pretty sure it is just advice I picked up somewhere and re-purposed. I know how to end so I keep on typing and typing. Short stories are good. It is thundering outside.
The End
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Jimothy. I really enjoyed hearing about your experiences. I think you nailed it on the head (in regards to fiction) with your mention of the book “Call of the Wild”. A story can often be a lot more powerful in conveying certain themes then just reading them in a how-to book. I find that reading fiction really encouraged my development of empathy. I often think about how it would be to be in their shoes, since I’ve read the lives of many characters in books and felt their emotions. Whereas I find that non-fiction books, or at least the ones I select, make me really think and re-think and be critical. I find myself tapping into my emotions with fiction versus reason in non-fiction.
When you said, “I find myself tapping into my emotions with fiction versus reason in non-fiction.” It reminded me of a chapter of “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards. The book explains the difference between the tasks the Left side of your brain handles and the tasks the right side of your brain handles. Your left side handles analytical tasks, symbols, speech. The right side handles your awareness of things, metaphoric relationships, and intuition to name a few. “One of the marvelous capabilities of the right brain is imaging: seeing an imaginary picture with your mind’s eye.” a quote from the book. I think that reading exercises both sides of your brain and it’s great thing to use your whole brain.
Yeah, I believe reading would exercise both sides. Some books might exercise one side more than the other as well. 🙂 Let’s go do some brain exercises!