Cultural Arts and Entertainment

Fiction for a reason

I'm often asked by many readers who glance over my "On the Bookshelf" reviews in the Lifestyle section why I only read fiction and barely any nonfiction.

"What's the point in reading something that never really happened?" and "What could you possibly learn from reading fiction?" are all valid questions that often are brought up to me.

But I have my reasons for sticking with fiction. What's the point in reading something that never really happened? Imagination. I love taking my mind to new places that it would never have experienced without novels. What could I possibly learn from reading fiction? The awe-inspiring. Novels let readers exit their current daily lives and delve into a world of fantasy.

With all the terrible things happening in this world -- war, famine and violence -- it's nice to escape from the real world for a time. If I'm going to be confronted with those issues anyway, why not just read a fictionalized post-apocalyptic novel? At least then I can say, "Well, our world hasn't gotten that bad ... at least not yet."

The point is, there's something very attractive about stepping out of our day-to-day lives and into a story where we can imagine a world different from our own. Don't tell me that I'm wasting my time reading fiction. I've experienced the mundane and the supernatural, been to places all over the world and lived through dozens and dozens of time periods in our history -- all through novels. If that's wasting my time, then I suppose the joke's on me.