Fiction or non-fiction?

[tomaustin95]

I can safely say I have never read a fictional novel from start to finish in my life. I just don't find it interesting and my mind starts to wander after the first two pages. Factual books on the other hand is another matter, if I find something that interests me I can't put the book down......this is probably both an autistic and an ADHD trait.

I was hyperlexic as an infant/child which masked the problem because I was an English teacher 's star pupil....but the problem really began to bite hard in the latter years of high school because once you got to Higher/A-Level English (British guy here) it caused all sorts of problems with English class and exams at school when we had to learn works of fiction and then wrote essays on them, which for me was an absolute nightmare and like pulling your own teeth. So much so it probably destroyed what interest I had in reading for pleasure. It was almost physically painful to be made to read against my will. But as I say anything factual was a different matter.

Any similar experiences out there?

 

[Gerontius]

Oh, now I can't rightly say I am in the same boat; that would be a lie. Literary fiction is one of my major special interests, as are languages in general (specifically English.) Essays, analysis, and all that are some of my favorite things still and I love collecting books--most of the collection is non-fiction and pertains to other special interests, but I retain an interest in fiction & over the last few years began building a collection of that as well. So absolutely not.

 

[Darkkin]

I read both at the same time. 6 - 8 books per week, but there are times I binge a complete series in two days (4 - 8 books).

I love the genres. Fantasy, science fiction, romance, paranormal, poetry, picture books, children's literature, graphic novels, regency fiction, mysteries, thriller, select horror, and mythology of any type.

Nonfiction is all science, true crime, history, psychology, medicine, writing, and nature.

If I don't like the topic or jive with the characters, I skim to glean and pull enough workable data to test well on.

If I jive with a series or book, I will reread it multiple times. My library is the sole extravagance of my existence and it is respectable.

I have no patience or time for "celebrity' biographies or political books.

And I find cookbooks weirdly interesting. I'm a horrendously picky eater, but I love reading recipes and figuring out how things work.

 

[Mr. Stevens]

Both. While I enjoy certain information for its own sake, and to think of the people involved, it isn't enough. I need fiction for the emotional experience: how poetic language affects me emotionally, and to study the people and experience their feelings.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Non Fiction is my fave. I also love the classics.

 

[Misery]

Sort of the other way around, kinda.

I cant get into non-fiction most of the time. Just... cant. Though, part of this is due to the fact that THE thing writers seem to want to write about is history, and for me personally, there is no greater cure for insomnia. I hate that subject with the blazing passion of a thousand exploding stars.

I honestly cant think of much in the way of topics that could keep me engaged with a non-fiction book.

Well, no, there is one, which is courtroom/legal stuff. Lawyers and trials and things like that. No, I dont know why. But I dont actually have any like that.


But fictional stuff? Oh yes. I want a good story, I want interesting characters, and I want horror and surreal weirdness and stuff like that.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Because, in part, because of my Visual Snow Syndrome, I have a difficult time reading a character description and imagining it in my mind, as it is all “fuzzy” and pixelated. I have a difficult time reading fictional stories. I do enjoy watching the movie adaptations, even though they often don’t do the books justice, or so I have heard many times. I tend to read technical and scientific books and papers that I can directly apply in my life, both professionally and personally.

 

[Outdated]

From as soon as I learnt to read books were my way of escaping from the rest of the world, mostly science fiction and fantasy stories with a few crime thrillers in the mix.

There's not that many factual books that I've found a lot of entertainment in, most seem to be incredibly dry and boring. One that really stood out to me as a good read was Tobruk by Peter Fitzsimons. It was also of extra interest to me because my grandfather was there at the time.

 

[Princess Viola]

I, personally, find myself enjoying both non-fiction and fiction. Even with my aphantasia making it impossible to visualize the characters/plot elements in my head, the fact that that this is just how I've been means that it's not like I understand what it's like to be able to do that. I can still get fully engrossed in just text (and, slightly off topic, but it's not like my aphantasia stops me from enjoying writing fiction either).

(Although perhaps this is why I find myself drawn to manga because of the illustrated nature of it being a comic book too?)

 

[Slime_Punk]

I can't do stories whatsoever but nonfiction / hobby-related books are definitely my jam

 

[330]

I usually only read non-fiction . Fiction is really hard for me . I can’t get the plots or all the nuances of everything , and I really can’t visualize the characters, or the flow of their conversations.

I can read comic books though that does help me with Fiction .

 

[Luca]

I have a very strong preference for nonfiction. Not just books but TV and movies as well.

 

[BrokenBoy]

I've been moving towards nonfiction. I have a lot of reading to do with this political transformation I went through last year.

 

[Jordy]

I read non-fiction all the time for my engineering and math interests. I will read a classic fiction 2-3 times a year at most, I also have a couple manga's i read. I love sci fi manga for the illustrations. When I do read a fiction the main reason is to improve my English vocabulary.

I have picked up non-fictions on topics i find interesting that are outside of stem, but i tend to not finish them.

 

[Progster]

but the problem really began to bite hard in the latter years of high school because once you got to Higher/A-Level English (British guy here) it caused all sorts of problems with English class and exams at school when we had to learn works of fiction and then wrote essays on them, which for me was an absolute nightmare and like pulling your own teeth. So much so it probably destroyed what interest I had in reading for pleasure.

I took English Literature, and this was a huge mistake. I struggled to finish with a D.

First, I didn't know how to write essays, and the school was pretty useless - they told you to go and write an essay, but didn't teach you how to write one. I didn't know how to prioritize and thought that the more details I wrote, the better the essay would be, and couldn't understand how I was getting such low marks. So my essays were basically just a list of points/facts.

I also found it boring... I enjoy reading, but analysing was boring and I couldn't see the point of it, so I just used to daydream. I was no good at interpretation; my teacher commented that I had a tendency to misinterpret. The books were often really boring, too.

Then, the worse thing was that they would give you a piece of poetry and told you to go away and analyse it. I just couldn't do it and used to kind of guess, and got extremely low grades.

I do read non-fiction, but only sci-fi, also sometimes fantasy or adventure. I read a lot of non-fiction, but mainly articles online.

 

[autism-and-autotune]

I find this thread fascinating. I've mostly ever read fiction throughout my life---a few nonfiction, but those either either biographical (about Bach, for example) or otherwise musical (like about the pipe organ). But fiction...fiction is something into which I can fully escape; I've been a fan of Tolkien for half my lifetime, and also Rothfuss and Ness and Paolini.

 

[Ken]

I like both. I love learning so I love reading non-fiction. Currently, I'm reading an absolutely fascinating book titled, "An Immense World" by Ed Yong. Not only is it fascinating about all life, but I find a fundamentally deep connection to autism in this book (although the word autism is nowhere in the book). The key word is Umwelt.

I also love a good novel, but it has to be logical. Things in the story that are illogical or doesn't logically fit other parts of the story to be upsetting for me. I enjoyed the book, and movie, "The Martian". However, it was a little disturbing because, while most of it was logical, it had some physics flaws. Just not enough to ruin it for me.

I also like biographies and autobiographies. Those are often novel like, but are real stories - thus logical. One I really loved is, "Finding the Mother Tree" by Suzanne Simard. Also fascinating to lean about the complexities of life, but is an autobiography that is novel like.

 

[Vindiesel]

Fiction to me equates to dessert for the brain (abstract thoughts)

Non-fiction is pragmatic and practical usage.

Overall reading is becoming a pastime for the simple fact that most non-fictional books are comprised of a few ideologies around the core; the rest of the book are reiterations/examples of the core idea. So most books if you understand the premise then majority of the book is redundant and a waste of your time.

You can watch a 20minute video or read a 500page book. I would say a 20 minute video would supersede the 500 page book with ease in regards to time efficiency and accurate picture representations of the core ideologies.

video>book

Books in general can conjure up imaginative pictures/thoughts but videos dictate through pictures to infuse in your memory.

I like a mixture of both but biased to videos.

Also the value and original premise of obtaining information must be for practical usage instead of mental masturbation at-least for me.

I see these people on jeopardy that know a wide array of knowledge to answer all these questions. To have the plasticity and memory consumption to have this knowledge sitting around to me is asinine in a sense. If it isn't practical whats the point of knowing a minuscule detail about the Boston tea party massacre? who cares.

Its like having a computer desktop covered in folders that haven't been used in years. Hoarding information that has no outlet and taking up room and requires more processor speed to store and harder to search for files you use on a normal basis. I run defragment mode all the time in my brain.

 

[Darkkin]

@Ken

I've read Immense World by Yong, it was, for want of a more concise term, immense. One of the things I liked the most about it was it went deep dive into its topic right off the bat. It is an immersive book, one that didn't take its readers' comprehension for granted. And in a lot of writing, this can be something that is difficult to find. Like the newer seasons of the Planet Earth series, the reader is right there with a peregrine falcon in a hunting dive or with a bee, bobbling through a meadow of flowers in colours without names.

All too often complex and interesting topics are watered down into 30 second sound bites with no attention given to the underlying systems, the interaction of those systems, and the baseline functionality of said systems and its impact on a lifeform. Currently I'm reading Malady of the Mind by Lieberman and it has a very similiar, immersive style. And as a reader, that is one of the things I consider the sign of an effective writer, someone who can take an allegory and connect it seamlessly with the functional construct they are writing about. It is too simple just to regurgitate facts without having working knowledge beyond the verbatum memorization. It is the difference between peer to peer communication and peer to parrot. Life isn't just about the how, it is about the who, the why, and the what. When is just a quirk of time, but it too has its roles to play.

Information is only one dimensional if we treat it that way. If we are able to interface the context into a real time translative matrix all of the weird information we retain suddenly has a viable function within everyday life. I'm a context translater and I love seeing those connections come to life, or an entire swath of a concept tessellation transfer to a seemingly disparate set of parameters.

I'm an atypical visual learner, so one of the things vital to any new type of intergration data, I need to see the words. Books engage my senses of sight, touch, sound, and smell in an active process so the I engage fully with the book. I can tune out TV and videos like its nobody's business simply because it is a passive medium to my mind's perceptions. Akin to a pseudocivil conversation at the grocery store, (talking to be polite, rote recall, rather than active participation (interest) in the discourse).

It is the different levels of interaction and different types of books bring out their own unique reactions. It is the difference between reading a romance novel simply to get lost in the story and the active leaps of logic and theorizing going on while reading about the molecular history of the ergot derivative LSD and its seeming ability to mimic a schizophrenic mindset.

 

[AprilR]

Fiction when i was younger.Like others said it was my escape from the world. I also created stories in my head, and imagined myself as a character.

Nowadays i don't read much bc of concentration issues and lack of time. I never considered reading non fiction but if it is about my interests i enjoy it.