Hi there!
This week, a colleague shared that they don’t enjoy reading fiction (preferring to read nonfiction) because it doesn’t hold their attention since they can’t learn anything from it. While there might be some context I’m missing for why this colleague felt that way, I was a bit concerned by the blanket statements that one can’t learn anything from reading fiction and that nonfiction is superficial to fiction.
I think there’s a lot to learn from reading fiction. In Originals by Adam Grant, the authors shared that parents should help their kids draw creative lessons from the books they read to help them grow up as original thinkers. Reading fiction helps young kids gain morals (think The Boy Who Cried Wolf) and learn the importance of perseverance or manners (think Goldilocks and the 3 Bears). By the time we enter primary and secondary school, we are able to learn how to be better storytellers from reading (good) fiction novels. We get inspired to mimic the hook, flashback or multiple point-of-view techniques used by the authors we read. More often than not, fiction is not just entertainment; it’s also education in disguise.
As adults, reading fiction also builds our imagination and strengthens our empathy library. We can see the world through the eyes of a sailor, an assassin, or a single mom. We enter their ‘heads’ and feel their emotions. We reflect on our own experiences and gain the courage to re-imagine our lives. Likewise, we empathise more with others we otherwise may not have met in real life.
Reading (fiction and nonfiction) has been a transformative part of my life, and I have gained a lot from reading fiction. I still vividly remember how reading Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was a life-changing experience for me. It was the first time in my formative years that I had read or could remember reading a book where a Nigerian girl was the lead character. I was able to connect with Kambili and see myself in some areas. I was affirmed that I could be the lead character of a story and, more importantly, my own story. Fiction has the power to inspire us, to believe in our potential, which I think we all need in our lives.
Here’s my reading highlight for this week:
The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason
4 stars
The best way to describe this book is as “a tale old as time”. The money habits that made Babylon and folks in Babylon rich, shared through numerous anecdotes, are the many we have often heard of before. To summarise and put it simply:
- Pay yourself first
- Save and don’t spend beyond your means
- Invest and let your money work for you
poetryandproze 