Defending fiction

Over at the Mad Genius Club I have a guest post from Amie Gibbons up, and I think if you enjoy reading, this is a good post for you.

I asked Amie Gibbons for a guest post after I saw a short thing she’d written indignantly defending fiction: “Don’t tell me fiction is a waste of time. You don’t learn empathy, foster imagination or a sense of wonder, or play pretend in non fiction. Those are the realm of fiction and engage the heart as well as the mind.”. Could you expand on that? I asked her. I don’t know if she’s seen my earlier post on Bibliotherapy, but this is a great defense of fiction: what is it good for? Amie is also newly inducted into this mad world of professional authors as she has just published her first title, so give her a warm welcome in the comments. 

I have a friend who doesn’t read fiction.  No really, he actually said that.  And it’s not like he’s your average dolt who only reads tweets and tabloids and hasn’t cracked a book since high school.  He’s probably the smartest person I know, is getting his masters at Harvard, and he reads all the time, but it’s biographies, textbooks, news, er, whatever other non-fiction stuff there is clogging the shelves.

When he told me he didn’t read fiction, I asked why and he said it was a waste of time, like sitting around watching TV, and he’d prefer spending his time on more worthy pursuits.

Say whaaaaaat?

I didn’t even know how to respond to that.  If it’s a stupid person who doesn’t read at all, I have responses, but an educated person who grew up reading and doesn’t see the point of reading fiction, ummmmmm.

It brought up a question I’d never really thought about, which I probably should’ve considered before now since I write fiction.  Why do you read fiction?

Read the rest at...  If you enjoy her non-fiction, you should check out her fiction, too!