A Truly Fictional Account

While writing about the push and pull of information in today's society over the last few blog posts, I made a passing reference to compiling a reading list.  For the last few years, I've flitted between a few different methods in order to find something that won't bore me to death with pretentiousness while also ensuring I don't lose a few IQ points with every page I turn.

At first, I started with Kindle's recommendations, and, while some of them were entertaining,  they just weren't...pithy enough (and some of them were just plain horrible).  I don't always need to read National Book Award winners, but I need something that's more than the equivalent of literary bubble gum (or, worse, Mountain Dew).  

Then I moved on to the NY Times's best books of the year, a collection of 5 fiction and 5 non-fiction books selected as the top books of the year.  This certainly scratched the literary itch that the Kindle recommendations missed, but, frequently, many of the books were probably too...pithy for me.  I don't mind being challenged when reading, but I also want to enjoy the book.  I want to spend more time on plot and character development than on the book's place in literary history and decoding subtext (although I swear one of these days I'll give Ulysses a shot).

[This is not an unusual stance for me.  In most media (and food) I'm caught halfway between being a snob and an anti-snob.  Using food as an example - I can appreciate fine dining, and I'm willing to spend a buck or two on good food, but I'm less interested in a deconstructed Beef Wellington accented with celeriac foam, especially if I'm paying a premium just for the novelty.  Why not just cook an excellent Beef Wellington and pair it with mashed celeriac - the food is still top-notch, and you're able to experiment with ingredients that most people haven't been exposed to without seeming like a reverse parody of American Psycho.]

(Almost) Most recently, I settled into the NY Times' notable books - a broader selection of good fiction and non-fiction that doesn't have the luxury of necessarily needing to pick the best.  I've had better success with those lists, but felt I should also incorporate some of the classics I've neglected.  So, when the NY Times released its 100 best books of the 21st Century (probably paywalled, but can also be found on Wikipedia) so far, I decided to use that as a founding component of my own literary canon along with the greatest books of all time, and the greatest books of the 20th century.

As with any canonical list, there are flaws, but a cursory check of each shows a representation of diverse voices, so I know I'm not simply reading in an echo chamber.

What is common among all of these lists, though, is that I'm exclusively picking out fiction recommendations.

Which leads me to the primary point of my post - read more fiction!

If you don't read or only read very specific categories or genres or read very slowly, I'm not going to shame you into making changes.  I'm probably on the more prolific end of the reading spectrum, but even if you only read a page a day, it will enrich your life.

I'm also not averse to non-fiction.  I understand why people read books on business or self-help, though I'm skeptical of the benefit many of them provide (this statement will come back to haunt me as I contemplate writing my own management manual).  

I've also been captivated by books like Guns, Germs, And Steel; Freakonomics; or The Great Influenza in their ability to expand my perspective, even if their conclusions may be a little too pre-packaged and their arguments a bit more susceptible to counterpoints over time.

But fiction is different.  It creates entire worlds and forces you to understand those worlds from the perspective of the characters involved.  As with anything created by humans, there's always going to be an inherent bias (anyone who claims Ayn Rand's novels are an objective - pun intended - perspective of the world needs to either stop taking drugs or start taking drugs), but you're dealing with that bias predominantly on the characters' terms, which increases your ability to empathize.

And, since this is ostensibly a blog on business or management, this is an important point to emphasize:  reading fiction increases empathy.  It's a bit unusual to accentuate the transactional nature of empathy as a skill building exercise for career development, but if it leads to people reading more and being more empathetic, so be it - 

Empathy increases your ability to view the world through your employees' or customers' eyes, thus leading to a better experience for both, and, thus, a more robust business for yourself.

I know that some people view reading as purely utilitarian (though, if you do, I'm surprised you're reading my blog.  And, if you're reading my blog because you find it useful (a) thanks! and (b) ostensibly that means I can successfully monetize this venture because people find my advice valuable).  I don't believe anything I say next will generate an "Aha!" moment for the utilitarians among you, but I'll take a little more time to plead my case:

First, I think very few people arrange their lives via strictly utilitarian schedules.  People watch TV, listen to music, exercise, cook, or engage in hobbies that have no direct correlation to self-actualization.  Now, you may say - "I do all of those things, so I have no time to read fiction."  But, as I mentioned above, reading anything at all is significant.  Even if it's a page or two a day, you're still engaging in the process and reaping the benefits.

And, returning to a more utilitarian argument - the ability to envision a fictional world and fill in the gaps that occur also increases your ability to think creatively (since you're already filling in the little details that your brain craves to make sense of the story).  The funny thing about creativity is that it doesn't limit itself to a particular area of your life.  It will create sparks in other areas that are more practical (read business-oriented) and aid in you in revisiting old problems with fresh eyes.

I'll make one final point - even if you limit yourself to a particular genre - fantasy, science fiction, horror, romance, whatever - expose yourself to the diverse voices within your genre.  Fiction should be enjoyable, but it should also expose you to new points of view.

You know you're getting something out of a book when you wholeheartedly disagree (or are disgusted by) a character's motivations but understand why they've made the decisions they've made over the course of the story.

Until next time, my human and robot friends.