Fiction vs Non-Fiction

Hello lovelies! I hope everyone is having a spectacular Saturday and you guys are already making headway into your TBR pile! I think posting discussion posts on Saturday are becoming a habit and I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not but that doesn’t matter because I have an awesome topic that we can discuss- Fiction Vs Non-Fiction.

Ooooh the age old debate about whether fiction or non fiction books are better and of late the former has been wining I feel, with at least for younger adults anyway. I think many readers prefer fiction books over non fiction and so do I, but for this post I am going to be an advocate for reading more non- fiction books because non-fiction books can be pretty awesome too and I’m somehow balancing the playing field!

Fiction:

I can say, with a hand on my heart, that many readers read fiction because they want to escape. They say I read because I want escape from reality and transport myself into another world, life and mind or some variation of that and I totally read for the exact same reason. Reality can become a bit stressful and tough sometimes and reading a good book no matter genre or length can transport you and take you away from everyday troubles. 

Another reason why I think fiction is the best is that sometimes I feel like to tackle a problem or see it more clearly sometimes we need to see it in a different setting, with different people. These problems can easily be as small as getting over heartbreak to a corrupt government. Adding a dash of plot twists and interesting characters and you have an enjoyable story which not only opens your eyes and sometimes helps you figure out problems, but a book that you…well enjoy!

Lastly, fiction encourages creativity! In a world where  practicality and logic are becoming highly valued (which is a great thing by the way) creativity is becoming less valued (which is bad!). Creativity and thinking about the impossible is what brought many modern day inventions. Creativity should and needs to be encouraged and what’s a better way then reading books were the impossible exists! 

Non-Fiction:

This is the part where I encourage more people to read non-fiction!

Non fiction isn’t boring! I’m a believer that everybody loves history, they just haven’t found the right time period yet! You thought that Henry and his six wives were interesting? Pick up a non fiction history book talking about Henry’s marriages. Thought that the Roman Empire was pretty cool? There are more then plenty of books detailing the rise and fall of the Roman Empire- treat yourself to one!  I’m kind of surprised by the amount of feminists that haven’t read a single non fiction feminist book! I mean I’m not feminist but I’ve read a few and they are actually interesting even if I don’t agree with many points. And by reading a book based around something you find interesting, you are simultaneously learning something. 

Secondly, as much as we love to escape to faraway lands and follow the lives of people live the life, we are still in reality and educating yourself on the many things we deal with in life could help you. Read books on issues that you see every night on the telly and increase your trunk of knowledge! Knowledge is power!  So yeah my main point here is education and knowledge. You can learn a lot from fiction, but sometimes nothing is better than a hard dose of reality.

My last point here kind of leads off from the second one. I can’t help but imagine a world were people actually read history books. And I don’t exactly mean books about Georgian period but just books about 20th century life and politics and economics. We know we won’t make mistakes from the past and we learn from those mistakes and build a better world because of them. This sounds really utopian I know, but I don’t see why we can’t make at least half of it true. Reading non-fiction also encourages the use of facts and figures over feeling making more which leads to people making more logical decisions that could truly make the world a better place. 

So who wins…
YOU DECIDE! Comment down below and tell me who wins the great fiction V non-fiction debate! And I don’t want know they are both so good because we know that! I want merciless answers from you bookworms! 

-Astra

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