What's the point in living in a world without imagination? The whole point in fiction is to use and explore things that are not always reachable in our lives. Through our minds we can go to worlds and places we could never experience without fiction. Picking up a great fiction book, is an escape from reality, and I myself need that escape. I don't just want to read about the things I live on a daily basis, or see on the news or read in the paper. I want to read great stories about places that never were and can truly become real in your mind when you get wrapped up in the story. I don't think I would enjoy life if I could not spend at least a few hours a day dreaming wide awake.

Well of course I do and have always read fiction, including great literature. Just that now I prefer non-fiction esp biographies (which definitely take me to worlds I do not know and can never inhabit)

Still wish I could remember the name of the book about the fairies and Manhattan with gardens between the rows of houses and the huge old country house with the funny staircase!

sabrinassabrina wrote:I must say that one can learn a lot about people and life in general by reading a fictional book. It makes the learning easier, as we don't feel threatened by its contents.

Agreed, and couldn't have said it better myself. I hate to put it in such crude terms, but reading fiction is in many ways akin to making a commitment to use birth control after watching an episode of Maury; it didn't happen to you, so you can't be offended, but at the same time you can learn from the situation.

Look at it this way. If we lived in a world without stories, one could say we live in a world without imagination. Now think about all the things we have due to someone's imagination: electricity, the light bulb, the telephone, automobiles, the Internet, the list goes on and on. If it wasn't for imagination, North America would never have been discovered, we would still think the world is flat, etc.

phontaine2010 wrote:SOME PEOPLE HAVE GREAT IMAGINATION AND WHAT THEY COME UP WITH MIGHT NOT BE TRUE BUT FOR US READERS IS JUST GREAT ENTERTAINMENT.

"Some people have great imaginations and what they come up with might not be true but for us readers is just great entertainment."

Fixed.

When my children were young and I was teaching them to read I explained that there was often more truth in fiction than in non-fiction. I gave them examples of politicians lying with "facts". I haven't changed my mind.

Non-fiction is simply…history.

Since what someone or something did, (who, what, when, where and how) is interesting or educational it is fundamentally booorrrriiinnngg.

Fiction is different, in that it ignites humanity to take action. I know many BT members will agree, the best example for that is the Bible.

lady of shallot wrote:Anyone remember this book? It starts off in a Manhattan of the future and then moves to the nearby country side.

Might it have been; 'Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins, And Other Nasties'
by Lesley M. M. Blume?

Escapism for me... I love to just relax and 'get into' a book- shut the world out. I do tend to read more fantasy books than anything so when I read I'm escaping into a different world, filled with everything opposite the world we live in- magic, dragons and monsters.

I think that the best fiction challenges my point of view and forces me to confront myself. The best stories make an incision from stem to stern and expose our common truths....or at least from one author's perspective. A successful story deveops characters I might know, who may be as flawed as I am, who disrupt my tidy little world, who dare me to reach.

It shows the creativity of the writer and helps readers in growing their imagination. Also, everyone needs to spend time away from the worldly affairs. What can be better than fictional stories?