In Defence of Made-Up Stories

There's a persistent cultural whisper that reading fiction is a guilty pleasure — fine for leisure, but not quite as worthy as non-fiction, news, or "useful" content. If you're going to read, surely you should be learning something practical?

This view sells fiction dramatically short. Reading literary fiction is one of the most cognitively and emotionally rich things a person can do. And in an era of accelerating distraction and surface-level connection, it might matter more than ever.

What Happens to Your Brain When You Read Fiction

Research in cognitive science has shown that reading narrative fiction activates the brain differently from reading factual text. When you read a story, your brain doesn't just process language — it simulates the experience. The same neural regions associated with real-life social cognition light up when we follow fictional characters through their inner worlds.

In essence, reading fiction is a form of social rehearsal. It exercises your capacity for empathy, perspective-taking, and emotional nuance — skills that are both deeply human and increasingly rare.

Fiction as a Map of the Inner Life

Non-fiction can tell you facts about anxiety, grief, loneliness, or joy. Fiction makes you feel them alongside a character — and in doing so, helps you recognise those feelings in yourself and others. A novel can articulate something you've lived but never had words for. That's not entertainment; that's illumination.

Some of the most precise descriptions of the human experience aren't found in psychology textbooks — they're buried in the pages of literary novels, short story collections, and quiet memoirs written as fiction.

The Genres Worth Exploring

Fiction is not a monolith. If you've fallen out of reading or never found your way in, here are the types of fiction worth exploring:

  • Literary fiction: Character-driven, beautifully written, often dealing with complex emotional or social themes.
  • Historical fiction: A way of experiencing different eras, cultures, and human conditions through story rather than textbook.
  • Short stories: Perfect for readers with limited time — a complete world in 10–30 pages.
  • Speculative fiction: Science fiction and fantasy at their best use invented worlds to examine very real human questions.
  • Translated fiction: One of the most powerful ways to encounter cultures, rhythms of thought, and perspectives beyond your own.

On Reading Slowly and Letting Books Breathe

We've inherited an optimisation mindset around reading too — tracking books finished, hitting annual targets, speed-reading. There's nothing wrong with reading goals, but the deeper value of fiction comes from slowing down enough to be moved by it.

Some books deserve to be read over weeks, savoured in chapters. Some passages deserve to be reread. Some stories should sit with you, unresolved, for a while. Let them.

Where to Start (or Start Again)

If you've drifted away from fiction, the best re-entry point is simply a book someone you trust genuinely loved. Not a "classic" you feel obligated to read — a book that made a real person's eyes light up when they described it. Start there. The rest will follow.

Fiction doesn't ask you to be productive. It asks you to be present. In that sense, it might be the most human thing you can do with your time.