To those who always have their nose poked into a book in their free time, reading is a pleasurable activity and is a part of life. Something you can always escape to whenever you need to get something off your mind, something when you need to feel anything but bored at the moment.
But for others who are fast to judge, they may feel as if reading is a chore your English teacher assigns or something your parents tell you is good for you, like vegetables. If you are one of these people, then you’ve not found your genre yet, and I would begin my search with fiction.
Most book loving people tend to resort to fiction for a reason- it entails an adventure completely separate from reality. It can give you a different life, in a different place with people who are different from your normal crowd- maybe somewhere you wish you were.
Reading fiction can be an inspiration, and can make you view the world differently. It can give you ideas and different outlooks and opinions on life than what you already have.
Non-Fiction tends to carry these characteristics along with them as well, especially in their narratives. But when you think “Non-fiction,” you think of boring stories and articles about old historical events like the Pony Express or documentary-type books- which when you stop to think about it sounds lame. Don’t get me wrong, documentaries aren’t boring when you watch them, but reading them just doesn’t have the same effect.
And that’s one thing I love about fiction: you read the book, then you can watch the movie or show- and when it is a good story line, neither the book nor movie/show is boring.
Sure, fiction is not real and it can give you false hopes, but that only occurs when readers interpret the author’s message the wrong way. Readers need to use their own logic to determine whether something can be a reality or if it is meant to stay in the books.
While non-fiction is mostly based on facts and true events, fiction can be anything a creative mind desires. There are so many genres- from fantasy with princesses in castles, to sci-fi with aliens hunted by space rangers, to realistic fiction (my personal preference) with characters that you can relate to.
If you are one of those people who I mentioned earlier that would be fine never picking up another book for the rest of their life, you might want to give a fiction story another shot.
