![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?
I was paging through the notebook where I’ve been (since 1987) logging every book I finish reading along with a rating or score I give to each book. I can’t get over the fact that, although I read them in relatively equal numbers, I tend to give higher scores to non-fiction than fiction. But I love fiction! What’s going on here? My possible explanations for the lower scores given to fiction are –
1. I hold fiction to a higher standard and just expect more from it
2. There just aren’t a ton of fiction books out there that I think are great
3. Maybe I truly prefer non-fiction to fiction.
For a while I’d been kind of assuming it was a combination of #1 and 2, but now I am starting to wonder if it could be #3. Maybe I just get more enjoyment from non-fiction. But what about those works of fiction that I loved? I can think of several novels that had in-depth characters and intriguing plots – like “Affinity” by Sarah Waters or “The Catch Trap” by Marion Zimmer Bradley or “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” by Lisa See. When I love a novel, I really really love it, which makes me go back to thinking my reason for giving higher scores to non-fiction is a combination of 1 and 2.
What do you prefer?
I was paging through the notebook where I’ve been (since 1987) logging every book I finish reading along with a rating or score I give to each book. I can’t get over the fact that, although I read them in relatively equal numbers, I tend to give higher scores to non-fiction than fiction. But I love fiction! What’s going on here? My possible explanations for the lower scores given to fiction are –
1. I hold fiction to a higher standard and just expect more from it
2. There just aren’t a ton of fiction books out there that I think are great
3. Maybe I truly prefer non-fiction to fiction.
For a while I’d been kind of assuming it was a combination of #1 and 2, but now I am starting to wonder if it could be #3. Maybe I just get more enjoyment from non-fiction. But what about those works of fiction that I loved? I can think of several novels that had in-depth characters and intriguing plots – like “Affinity” by Sarah Waters or “The Catch Trap” by Marion Zimmer Bradley or “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” by Lisa See. When I love a novel, I really really love it, which makes me go back to thinking my reason for giving higher scores to non-fiction is a combination of 1 and 2.
What do you prefer?
