# Fiction or Nonfiction?



## Mick Travis (Aug 18, 2016)

I'm a nonfiction fan. I get enjoyment from learning about the real world. If I'm going to ingest fiction, it needs to address real issues as well. I prefer that it does this in a science fantasy environment. I consider a work high art if it it removes the audience from the present and educates them on the same. It's a wonderful psychological tool exemplified by Orwell and Star Wars. These accomplishments are few in the realm of escapism. The end goal of these works is to strip away our programming. When we then realize what our species really is, we'll probably prefer conversation to fiction. However, we will always need nonfiction.


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## BeyondMyThoughts (Dec 25, 2017)

Fiction, it's usually not as depressing. Usually.


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## Handsome Dyke (Oct 4, 2012)

I can't choose because I use them for two totally different purposes: entertainment and information-gathering. I've no basis for comparison.

And I think OP's suggestion about what people will prefer is presumptuous.


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## brightflashes (Oct 27, 2015)

I just love reading in general. My latest kick has been Historical Fiction over the past three years or so, so I don't know where that places me. Just speaking of novels, I read about 60% fiction (Historical Fiction included) and 40% nonfiction. Voted fiction. 

People read for such a wide variety of reasons that I don't think that it can be really placed in Fiction vs Nonfiction, though. Serious readers can read just for the experience of a practiced linguist rather than the story itself. The experience of reading can transcend content, basically and I don't think that one who reads pretentious nonsense is any more high minded than a toddler learning to read Dr Seus. Perhaps I'm misreading the OP, though; it just comes across as being elitist.


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## Mick Travis (Aug 18, 2016)

Blunt Trauma Benty said:


> And I think OP's suggestion about what people will prefer is presumptuous.





brightflashes said:


> People read for such a wide variety of reasons that I don't think that it can be really placed in Fiction vs Nonfiction, though. Serious readers can read just for the experience of a practiced linguist rather than the story itself. The experience of reading can transcend content, basically and I don't think that one who reads pretentious nonsense is any more high minded than a toddler learning to read Dr Seus. Perhaps I'm misreading the OP, though; it just comes across as being elitist.


Yes, I dream about a time when we are free to be the primates we are. I understand that some things I think of as inevitable are considered preposterous.


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## brightflashes (Oct 27, 2015)

Mick Travis said:


> Yes, I dream about a time when we are free to be the primates we are. I understand that some things I think of as inevitable are considered preposterous.


hmm. I must have mispoke or misunderstood, then. Explain?

Edit to add: I think we're probably talking past each other. I have back pain sometimes and I took a muscle relaxer in between the time I posted my reply and your reply to me and ... lol ... I can't even remember where I was coming from to begin with. :shocked:


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## Mick Travis (Aug 18, 2016)

brightflashes said:


> Edit to add: I think we're probably talking past each other. I have back pain sometimes and I took a muscle relaxer in between the time I posted my reply and your reply to me and ... lol ... I can't even remember where I was coming from to begin with. :shocked:


erc3:


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## The Dude (May 20, 2010)

Non-fiction...it's just more captivating and frequently stranger than fiction.


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## Cal (Sep 29, 2017)

I personally like both, though I do prefer fiction a bit more.


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## ImminentThunder (May 15, 2011)

I like both, but I have a preference for fiction. I read a lot more nonfiction when I was little, mostly about dinosaurs, space, and the natural and physical world. I still read nonfiction, but over the years I've found myself far more intrigued by fantasy and far-future (read: _not_ dystopian) worlds. 

Recently I've been getting into hard science fiction, which for me blends the best elements of both.


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## DoIHavetohaveaUserName (Nov 25, 2015)

Both.


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## Lakigigar (Jan 4, 2016)

Non-fiction


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## Folsom (Jun 20, 2018)

Cosmic horror fiction > Non-fiction > All other fiction
I have read and do read more non-fiction than fiction by a lot, but my favorite type of fiction is a type that I like more than non-fiction.


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## Vivid Melody (Apr 25, 2011)

I have a hard time choosing between the two. I don't like monotony so I often am reading one non-fiction book and one fictional book at the same time. When I was younger, I mostly just read fiction but still had "real" areas I enjoyed researching. But as I got older, I found myself reading a lot of non-fiction and almost zero fiction. The one non fiction book and one fictional book was something I recently discovered works well for me because sometimes I forget how much I crave a good story when I'm solely reading non-fiction. And I suppose TV/movies mostly satisfies that need for me these days so it's easy to forget. I think you can learn truth from either source though. Truth can be found any where if you are looking for it. Areas of non-fiction I like to read are more spiritual/metaphysical which a lot of people would probably also consider unreal.


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## atkinspea (Aug 2, 2017)

I read lots of both. And even some poetry (which can be some of each). And picture books! Recently plucked up Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut. At the library. Oy, I'm from another planet . . . .


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## Mick Travis (Aug 18, 2016)

atkinspea said:


> And picture books!


I have interior design and craft books from the 70's for that.


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## Cthulhu And Coffee (Mar 8, 2012)

Fiction, definitely. Life is confusing, and doesn't really seem to have a definite beginning or end other than birth and death; even when the book is 'over,' I realize there may be more to the story that I don't know. 

So I prefer fiction, because it gives me the illusion that something can be fully understood within a book. It's just a comforting thought, to me.


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## 440594 (Mar 3, 2017)

Not to sound too naive, but I was kind of surprised reading through this thread - I never really considered that there were people out there who liked non-fiction more than fiction............ (can you tell what my preference is lmao)

Since I was a little kid, I've always been disappointed in reality. Nothing in my environment persuaded me that the real world could hold a candle to the things I could create in my head - I wanted stories that swept me as far away as possible from everyday mundanities. Now that I'm older and I've read through the standard fantasy fare, I want things that challenge the rules of genre and worldbuilding. Why not put wizards in the old west? Why not put dragons on spaceships?? I constantly want to not only consume the new, but push past it, into the absurd! the unheard of! the mind-boggling!! I want to stretch the boundaries of my imagination as far as they will go, past the edges of the known universe and into endless expanses of possibility. 

Even my taste in non-fiction trends toward the weird and wacky - deep ocean, outer space, unexplored jungles deep in collapsed caves, underwater caverns with walls of pure white gypsum, everything supernatural and unexplained.... The tether that holds my soul to my body (and consequently the rest of this world) is so thin that reading fiction is where I feel most connected.


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## Rong Wong (Feb 16, 2018)

I've read non-fiction books almost exclusively since I was a kid. In high school I had to read a few fiction books so that I could do book reports on them. Didn't really enjoy it.

Now I'm older and wiser, I'm thinking about reading some fiction to exercise my imagination.


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## Jaune (Jul 11, 2013)

I find fiction more enjoyable.


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