What Are Some Benefits of Novel Reading?

[astrum]

One of my sister's friends loves to read novels--almost to the point of addiction. I find that intriguing, but have never worked up the guts to directly ask her about it.


I wonder: other than entertainment, what benefits come from novel reading? Why does it appeal to so many people, and how is it beneficial to us?

Is novel reading in any way superior to, say, reading non-fiction or poetry?

.....

[Lykren]

I don't think there's any reason other than entertainment.

Is it superior? Well, reading a well-written novel is better entertainment than reading a bad poem, but it would be foolish to generalize.

[mal4mac]

According to Stephen Pinker in "The Better Angels of our Nature" there is a lot of evidence for novels increasing our empathy and understanding of many different kinds of people. He suggests that the massive increase in novel reading since the Enlightenment coincides with a decrease in inter-racial violence, rape, child beating, and so on, and that there might be a causal link.

In any case, I agree with Lykren that entertainment is the main reason to read novels! But the best literature provides the best entertainment 'cause it's more complex and interesting, and empathising with characters, and understanding other points of view is fun.

For me, reading a novel provides the greatest entertainment; even when a non-fiction work is as superb as Pinker's it's always slightly "hard work" and "tedious in parts". Also in a great novel you are encountering the intimate thoughts & feelings of significant characters at first hand, which is, obviously, a more profound enactment of first hand subjective experience than you can get from a non-fiction work. Of course if the character is having banal, contrived experiences then the encounter with the work will not be, or feel, profound!

Why not ask your sister's friend why she loves to read novels? Pick up the courage, she will not bite :) As she knows you, she might pick out a good one for you to read, and you can encounter the magic of literature at first hand, rather than asking us about it, which is very much a second hand experience.

[Vota]

If people are reading anything other than blogs or watching movies I consider it a good thing even if what they are reading is on the lower end of the totem pole of quality reading, whether that be non-fiction, fiction, plays, whatever.

[ennison]

Relaxeffinattion agus expletive infixation

[Paulclem]

I read for ideas - I like science fiction for providing ideas about possible social constructions and inventions.

I like historical novels for the historical information a well researched novel can give. For example I'd heard of the word harbinger, but didn't realise that this was a job in Tudor times. I found this out in a CJ Sansom novel, the harbinger being someone sent, in that instance, to check for plague. In Blood Meridian I learned about the scalping bounty employed to counter raiding tribes in Mexico in the 19th century.Fascinating. War and Peace has examples of battles from the Napoleonic period, which was very interesting.

I also like to find interesting narrative styles. For example David Peace used stream of consciousness in his football book about Brian Clough The Damned United. In Red or Dead - so I gather from reviews, he's written it in a style that mimics Bill Shankley's coaching style with Liverpool FC.

They also provide good talking points with people who enjoy talking about books.

There's all kinds of incidental information to be found, but of course the main purpose is entertainment.

[osho]

I read novel for a variety of purposes at the same time. First i choose a novel for its ideas or story and then then the philosophy of it and then comes entertainment and if a novel becomes exhausting like Ulysses or To the light house i do not choose to read such novels and i love reading novels to to entertain myself and learn something new or else i evade some chapters of them if I find them tiresome. I read a novel to learn new words or new sentence structures and at times to direct or guide me in this world. Reading Tolstoy is to learn the philosophy of life and he is a great moralist and spiritualist.

[genermcmillan]

With understand the way of writing you can make a novel with your own ideas...try for that..:)

[HSPS]

Well, if the novels are good, they'll offer a great deal of insight into whatever they are about. Most importantly, though, they're emotional outlets. Like poems, they can turn grief and despair into (strangely) beautiful experiences, and they can enhance positive emotions like happiness and love. Harold Bloom maintains that the primary reason we read anything artistic is (or should be) to assuage loneliness.

While others may have a different idea of entertainment, I think it's a rather belittling term when used to describe reading great literature. To me, dime-a-dozen sitcoms are merely entertainment; the best literature is far beyond that.

[Ruben Meijerink]

Indeed, some concepts in life -'philosophical' or not- are better grasped empathizing with a novel, for a good novel can make you witness things you haven't seen in your life before.
In either way, it's a relatively good mental work out, because reading is a very active thing.

[Aylinn]

I read for entertainment, it's also a good way to learn and remain in touch with foreign languages which I learnt - English and Spanish. I would like to start reading in Norwegian, but mine is not good enough to read unabridged versions and it's hard to find simplified books.

[hypatia_]

cultivates imagination.

i'm sure poetry, nonfiction, and novels all cultivate it in distinct ways. "so for the most well-rounded individual and imaginator, please expose yourself to all types of literature."