ALL ABOUT READING

After I wrote yesterday about my eternal reading, an article appeared in today’s paper which pointed out something I had always felt was true, but never really expressed to anyone.

In the Boston Globe, Jonathan Gottschall makes the case that reading fiction makes it easier for us to understand people. Read “Why fiction is good for you” at tinyurl.com/tbtimes-fiction. Reading fiction shapes us for the better not for the worst, and may help explain why humans tell stories in the first place.

All my life I have read fiction, it’s really escapism but regardless, I feel better equipped to understand why some people do things harmful to themselves and to others. Also I’ve learned that fiction it’s not really all about happy endings, maybe just conclusions that we are compelled to think about. That is what happens to me a lot.

So after years of being maligned for reading only fiction, I can hold my head high because someone wrote I’m doing something that’s actually good for me.