What kind of reader are you?

Obsessive Bookworm here. You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.

I left one book upstairs. I was reading it while I brushed my teeth and made a mental note of what page I was on so I could go back to it next time I go upstairs for some reason. I have one stack of books from the used book store that’s still sitting on the couch in front of me, and another in a pile next to the chair. I’m feeling the gnawing pangs of guilt, because I’m on a jury for a book award, and several more submissions have arrived in the mail, and I haven’t read them yet. This job is KILLING me, because there are so many books that when you know in the first chapter that one of them is no good, you really can’t read it all the way to the trite, badly-written ending. You have to STOP and cast it aside, and move on to the next. That goes so against the grain with me. I’ve actually read some real turkeys all the way through, hoping . . . hoping . . . but they don’t get better. Then I throw the book down, indignant and amazed that yes, it could be that bad clear through. And wishing I had toothpaste of the mind to clear the taste away. I’m probably one of the few people in America--or the world--who has read “Dahlgren” by Samuel R. Delany multiple times.

And yes, Rod, I’m afraid it is wrong not to read fiction. My father is like that. He can only read Trollope. Fortunately for him, there’s quite a lot of Trollope. Nevertheless, it argues a failure of imagination, or nerve. Fiction is the closest we can ever come to understanding what it’s like to be someone else. Closing off your heart and soul to this possibility is denying yourself one of the greatest learning tools humanity has ever invented. It’s like refusing to learn math.

When people talk about not liking fiction, I always think about the ending of Ursula K. LeGuin’s great novel, “The Left Hand of Darkness.” The last words of the book come from the son of the dead hero, meeting the envoy from another world whom his father died to save: “Will you tell us how he died? Will you tell us about the other worlds out among the stars--the other kinds of men, the other lives?”

Biography can tell you about another, from a safe distance. Only fiction can invite you to become another.

That's interesting, Richard! James Gunn of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction says that the short story is actually the most perfect form of science fiction, and I suppose one could generalize to say that the short story is the most perfect form of fiction, period. The reasons would be similar to your friend's thinking--greater unity of theme, unity of impression on the reader, etc. I don't subscribe to that point of view, myself. Surely unity is only one aspect of art, not the whole ball of wax? And is he arguing that the impression on the viewer is not an important aspect of fine art? That doesn't seem right. To me it seems that all art is an interactive process taking place over time--frustrating for the artist to have to share her creativity with readers/viewers who frequently seem dumb as rocks, but what can you do? Anyway, I'm fully capable of being a different person from one minute to the next, so that sort of invalidates your friend's hope that I'll be able to stay in the same mind for a whole two hours!

Rod, you're not wrong to avoid fiction. Non-fiction has to have some relation to the facts. You can check the assertions of a non-fiction book to see if they are crap or not. But, novels make possible pure unadulterated propaganda. Even a great novel can be heavily biased loaded. I picked up Atlas Shrugged last year. That's supposed to be a great novel, but it was 1100 pages of propaganda.

Novels, in the hands of a good writer, manipulate your feelings, which can cause a person to develop beliefs from an illogical perspective. The writer can easily play you for a sucker. I've only read one novel I would consider great, The Brothers Karamazov.

Read non-fiction to the right and to the left, and some tough challenging books, and you will come out way ahead of the game. Short stories may be O.K, but most novels are just an elaborate ruse.

"Read non-fiction to the right and to the left, and some tough challenging books, and you will come out way ahead of the game. Short stories may be O.K, but most novels are just an elaborate ruse."

Couldn't disagree more. This is like saying, "Don't watch too many movies -- stick to documentaries," or "Avoid the art museum and instead concentrate on studying charts and graphs." For conservatives reading fiction (and poetry) is vital for the development of the moral imagination, since we believe that morality is related to the intuitive and the aesthetic, not just the rationalistic. The roll of thinkers who would support this idea is quite long, but would include Burke, Kirk, Roger Scruton, Chesterton, Lewis, Richard Weaver, Newman, T.S. Eliot, Allen Tate, George Steiner, Marion Montgomery...the list goes on and on. Note also that none of these folks is/was primarily a fiction writer, so they can't be accused of having a self-serving posture on this issue.

For a specific for-instance example, I'd argue that you can learn more about grace by reading, re-reading, and digesting Flannery O'Connor's works than by reading any number of theological tomes. Likewise, if you want to see what atheism and nihilism look like, you're better off going to Dostoevsky than to Bertrand Russell or Christopher Hitchens. Literature can be instructive in ways that nonfiction and merely 'factual' writing are not.

I am a "dedicated reader." Though I mostly read non-fiction at the present time, there is nothing like good fiction. Being taken into another world in a way that is not merely intellectual is one of the truly great experiences of life. Woohoo! for reading.

I would love to take the quiz, but my computer won't let me in to it, keeps saying it can't find the page. Foo. Anyway, I read one or two books a week, roughly 50/50 fiction and non, would read a lot more if I had the time. I try not to go through multiple books at the same time, as I think that usually indicates I'm getting unfocused. That may just be me. Every few years I reread Joyce's Ulysses. I think I'm about due to reread War and Peace, especially since there is supposed to be a neat new translation out.

It says I'm a Book Snob.

Wow.

((((grinning))))

Also Literate Good Citizen