A warm welcome to our new subscribers and hello again to all my old friends! đđ˝ This is the twenty-fifth (25!) issue of Perceptive Madness â wild that Iâve been writing this for more than six months already. Thanks for joining along and I hope youâll stick around.
If someone asked why I like reading books, Iâd tell them â I enjoy escaping into other worlds. Books have always been a lovely escape for me. From the real world, from school, from work, from whatever Iâm trying to ignore.Â
As a child, when I said I liked reading books because I liked stories, Iâd always receive encouraging nods and smiles. Now, as an adult, anytime I mention that I prefer fiction over non-fiction, Iâm usually met with a raised eyebrow.Â
âFiction? Seriously, why? What do you read?â đ
If I tell them Iâm a student of literature, Iâm afforded some grudging understanding. But then when I mention I donât read classics, up goes that eyebrow again. It makes me wonder â whatâs our obsession with expecting folks to only read challenging or useful books?Â
Whatâs on your TBR (To Be Read list)?
Earlier this year, a client asked me to write the Team page of their website. In an Excel sheet, 20-odd people had written down their hobbies and interests because this company wanted to put forth a more-than-work persona.Â
Almost half of them put down reading books as their hobby. Not a single one listed a fiction book. Everyone was reading 15 mins to 15 pages a day, but they werenât reading anything other than self-help or business books.Â
Honestly, I expected this. Our society has a weird problem with adults reading for enjoyment â unless theyâre in a creative space of some sort. Â
Every CEO and billionaire under the sun says they read every single day. But I have to wonder what their feeds would look like if they got Goodreads. Because like that team I wrote for, very few of them read or share their fiction recommendations. If they do, itâs always an already over-recommended classic, and more often than not, written by either a white person or a man.
â(Warren) Buffet recommended 19 books in 2019; not one of the titles is fiction. Of the 94 books Bill Gates recommended over a seven-year period, only nine of them are fiction. â Harvard Business Review
Apparently, once youâre old enough (this is usually around the time high school ends and you go to college/start work), you should only make time to read âusefulâ books. This is when you start choosing, or youâre pushed to select books that can make you, your life, your work, and your relationships better. Tangible, visible benefits â thatâs what you want.
Now, while thatâs great and all, Iâm here to make an argument that we all need to read more fiction. Not because itâs good for you (it is) but simply because we donât tend to pick it up because itâs âfun.â And somewhere along the line, we stopped reading simply because we wanted to.Â
Reading for pleasure isnât a crime
âYou should never read just for âenjoyment.â Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friendsâ insane behavior, or better yet, your own. Pick âhard books.â Ones you have to concentrate on while reading. And for godâs sake, donât let me ever hear you say, âI canât read fiction. I only have time for the truth.â Fiction is the truth, fool! Ever hear of âliteratureâ? That means fiction, too, stupid.â â John Waters, Role Models.
This quote frustrates me to no end because I like some parts of it, and I take great offense to the others. How ironic is it that he says we should read to make ourselves less judgemental but then turns right around and judges those of us who might want to read easy or frivolous books?
After all, why shouldnât I read just for enjoyment? In a world thatâs so fraught with uncertainty and problems, why should I deny myself the simple pleasures of reading a funny but useless book? Or why shouldnât I read easy books? Given my unending reading slump, any book I need to âconcentrateâ to read will not be read. I like childrenâs picture books. Theyâre cute and easy to read and make me feel nice about reading something. Sure, Iâm not becoming smarter or learning anything except that itâs okay to read whatever, but thatâs okay because I liked reading that book. Also, Iâm pretty sure reading that easy book made me less judgy and preachy.
Stories have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. As children, we read moral stories, fables, and parables â all tales with something to learn at the end. Be nice to everyone, treat animals with care, practise kindness, and sometimes grapes are sour, so you can let them be.Â
Reading all these stories that ended with a moral set us up to believe that books had to teach us something. It wasnât enough to be entertained or simply enjoy the book, but we needed to get something out of it.Â
If somehow someoneâs encouraged to pick up a fiction book, then your options are extremely limited to classics or adult literary fiction (modern âclassicsâ). God forbid you pick up a graphic novel or a childrenâs picture book or (gasp!) a young adult dystopian novel. Because, whatâs the point of those?
Everyoneâs always preaching about the benefits of non-fiction books. Self-help books, well, help you. Business books offer neat strategies and nuggets of advice from veteran leaders. Books that explore countries, cultures, histories, are integral to further our understanding of each other.Â
So then what does fiction bring to the table?Â
As it turns out, a lot.Â
Reading fiction makes you more empathetic and accepting. Itâs not news that when we are exposed to different narratives, we can gain more perspective. Over at Princeton Social Neuroscience Lab, research demonstrated that people who read fiction have better social cognition. Fiction readers are more able to gauge what others around them are thinking and feeling, allowing them to connect better. This also makes them more likely to help others and behave more altruistically.Â
Fiction books are not entirely devoid of any reality or realism. All writers pull stories from their own lived experiences or from those around them. This gives us a detailed view of how different people live and experience life on earth. Simply put, books open our minds. As HBR puts it, â...reading literature requires us to slow down, take in volumes of information, and then change our minds as we read. Thereâs no easy answer in literature; instead, thereâs only perspective-taking.â
More than anything else, Iâm just here to read fiction because I like it. I enjoy delving into new worlds, learning more about non-existent characters, and practically devoting my life to them, and I feel good about it.Â
Thatâs all there is to it, really. Reading should also be for fun, and itâs time we understood and encouraged that. Â
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Weekly faves! đ
Do you get confused between ALOT vs. A LOT? Allie Brosh's old but still definitely gold article will help put things in perspective. I thought it was such a cute read, hehe.
Wanna watch what everyone's watching? Netflix launched a Top 10 site that's gonna make it easier for you. See which films and TV series (English, Other Language) you need to watch ASAP, so you don't get spoiled. Sort by country or go global.Â
What about music? Here's a website that tells you what's the most popular song in your area and some cool music facts about trending music from all around the world.Â
Even though Warren Buffet may not read or recommend many fiction books, he's got a pretty helpful strategy to help you focus on your priorities. It's simple, it's doable, and most importantly, it works.Â
Don't keep it all inside â
Donât forget to heart the issue (right at the top or right under this) and share it with a friend. â¤ď¸
See you next week!Â
I'm one of those people who recommends classics, but never at the expense of enjoyment. If a book starts to feel like a chore, it's time to stop reading it. Maybe it'll feel different later! But life's way, way, way too short to waste any of it on books that don't give exponentially more than they take. Which is why I find myself returning to fiction more and more often. A good storyteller endows his or her work with its own gravity -- it doesn't take much effort for a reader to tip past the event horizon and fall in.
Also, it's been my experience that classics are classics for a reason. My mom recommended Steinbeck's East of Eden to me for YEARS back when I was in college before I finally cracked it open. Once I did, I was hooked. Since then, I've read it three more times. It's my favorite book. Before that, it was David Copperfield.
I'm not suggesting that everyone will love a so-called classic work of literature, but I wouldn't read them if they didn't pull me in. And I think a lot of people end up being surprised at how exceptionally entertaining old classics are. I read Anne of Green Gables when I was 30 and laughed until I cried.
Thanks for this. I completely agree! So much can be learned from fiction. It can enrich the soul. Also itâs fun.