Fiction vs. Non-Fiction
Over the past few years, I've spent thousands of dollars on books: 80% of which I actually ended up reading and 99.99% of which were non-fiction.
Somewhere in my junior year of high school I became enamored by the fact that you could find and buy books on practically any subject written by inaccessible, world leading experts for $15. The realization that you could get decades of knowledge logically distilled over a period of a few hours was just amazing to me. I started to be and still am amazed at how unpopular and uncapitalized upon reading is. I remember reading somewhere that the average American only reads two books after finishing with schooling, but watches four hours of TV a day. Wow!
At any rate, I thought about the areas where I wanted to learn more and started buying away, on topics ranging from spirituality and self-development to biography and business. I reasoned to myself that even if I took away just one major concept from each book and applied it, my life could take a completely new path.
My reasoning against fiction was the following:
- There were often slow spots that were hard to get over, which resulted in many books being only half-read.
- I often had difficulty applying the concepts to my own life because they were too vague for me. I wasn't exactly sure what the author was trying to get at and that bothered me. I wanted to know exactly what the author was thinking and his/her reasons for thinking it.
- I'm a fairly slow reader, so I felt like I could get more bang for the buck by simply watching movies, which were more grabbing.
- Fiction isn't true. This bothered because I felt that the information gleaned from it wasn't as useful.
However, as I get older, more introspective, and more firm in my world-view, I'm slowly beginning to realize the value of fiction more. Namely, I think good fiction can raise more questions than answers, which in itself is extremely valuable.
Over the past few years, journaling has become a more valuable process than reading for me. Through journaling, I'm able to effectively process my life experiences and develop new and evolving questions and answers. Perhaps some really good fiction, would help me look at life from new perspectives, challenge my existing beliefs, and bring up new, interesting, and enigmatic questions for me to ponder.
When I get time, I would like to make a concerted effort to read some good fiction. Similarly, the idea of writing a fiction book or screenplay is something that has been secretly appealing to me over the past few months.
Posted at January 17, 2004 07:56 PM
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