# What is your number one reason for reading fiction?



## KRCox (Feb 18, 2011)

People read. Some less, some more. Some read a book a week, sometimes two. And some take six months to read a novel. And we're all a little different, but there has to be something in common why we all read SciFi or Fantasy novels like George R.R. Martins work, or Harry Potter, or The Martian or BVL Larson's Space Dramas.

What is your number one reason for reading fiction?


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Entertainment.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Because I already finished reading the cereal box.

(Seriously, that's what I read if I don't have a good book to read.)

Betsy


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## wiccanhot (Aug 19, 2011)

To escape my boring life.
To get swept up in emotion.
To look busy so I don't have to talk to anyone.


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

My favorite genre is Mysteries/Thrillers.. and I read them to unwind.. to get away from the stress in my "real" life.. and escape into a different world.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

I know its asked a lot, but it always seems such a strange question. We never ask people why they watch fictional TV shows, that's taken for granted. I've heard from people who were baffled by reading fiction, because it "wasn't real". Now these people weren't watching documentaries, they watch fictional TV. To me, I read fiction because I'm human, and part of being human is telling stories.

Now if the question was why do I read fiction rather than watch fiction, there's more depth in written fiction, because a book can go into more detail than a TV show or a movie can. Plus, video is more suited to cheap emotional manipulation, and it's more difficult for a book to do that. I find cheap emotional ploys shallow. If you wanted to whip up a mob into a frenzy, a video would be much more effective than a book. Thus, if an author wants to induce an emotion, it's going to take more skill.

When reading, I can pause and reflect. Video is here and gone.


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

To get lost.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

To relax. For entertainment/escapism while at the same time feeling like I've accomplished something. Because there's not always something good on TV/sometimes I'm bored of the internet. I mean, there's only so many TV shows and websites I really enjoy but there's hundreds, if not thousands of great books out there waiting to be read!


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## KRCox (Feb 18, 2011)

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my query.

Best Wishes =)


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Why do YOU read fiction, KR?  Or do you?  

Betsy


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## Y. K. Greene (Jan 26, 2011)

Escape.


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## NottiThistledore (Jan 11, 2013)

So many reasons. To escape, to see the world through someone else's eyes, to see a new part of the world, for the beautiful language, for the wonder, and so on! The reasons are myriad.


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## KRCox (Feb 18, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Why do YOU read fiction, KR? Or do you?
> 
> Betsy


I do and I do for the same basic reason as everyone else. I was hoping to find something new.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

KRCox said:


> I do and I do for the same basic reason as everyone else. I was hoping to find something new.


Why? The reasons given aren't enough or the reason you do so isn't enough? 

Betsy


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

Definitely to escape. Sometimes for a reward. (For a while I could only squeeze in reading while I was doing the elliptical at the gym. It was good motivation to get me to the gym!)  I used to have a 40 minute commute. I would often look forward to that ride just to listen to a good audiobook. I also like fiction that introduces me and educates me about to a culture,people, place etc. that I know little about.  I loved Memoir of a Geisha not just for the story, but because it was so interesting to learn about the life of a geisha.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

To experience vicariously things I never have and never will. Maybe that's a different way to say for entertainment or escape.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I read fiction because I enjoy reading fiction. I can no more explain why I like it than I can explain why I like to eat chocolate.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9330 using Tapatalk


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

Our ancestors would go hundreds of feet into caves to paint fiction on the walls, with only a small oil lamp to guide them. Those animals on the walls are fiction. Of sure, they represented real animals, but they themselves aren't real. Imagining what is not is essential to planning. If you're planning a hunt, it's no use to simply recite what actually did happen, you imagine what might happen. You create a fiction in your mind, and that fiction helps you with your real-world hunt. Both non-fiction and fiction help us understand and interact with the real world.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Because I can only eat chocolate for so many hours of the day. 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

NogDog said:


> I read fiction because I enjoy reading fiction. I can no more explain why I like it than I can explain why I like to eat chocolate.
> 
> Sent from my BlackBerry 9330 using Tapatalk


Just to clarify a bit, now that I'm at my computer versus typing on my phone....

I suppose that with a bunch of psychoanalysis I _might_ be able to come up with rationalizations as to why I like to read, but I've never consciously decided to read a piece of fiction because "I want to escape reality," or "I want to see the world through someone else's eyes," or whatever other reason other than that I enjoy it. I'm not saying that any such reasons are or are not valid, but just that I don't recall ever choosing to read a piece of fiction other than simply for the enjoyment of it (or because a teacher said I had to  ).

PS: Time for me to eat my chocolate cookie now that I'm done with lunch.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

NogDog said:


> I read fiction because I enjoy reading fiction. I can no more explain why I like it than I can explain why I like to eat chocolate.
> 
> Sent from my BlackBerry 9330 using Tapatalk


Thank you for this as well as the amplified version that followed. I've been reading the responses here, and I can't really say I ever considered reading as escapism. I just like to read. Fiction, non-fiction, cereal boxes, road signs, the crawl on the evening news...magazines, newspapers, blogs, Internet forums ...instruction manuals, how-to books, public notices. I can't stop... One of the things I like about it is the stuff I learn, even in fiction books. Vocabulary, interesting settings. Jobs I never thought much about. But I don't read to learn as such. I read _to read_. It's fun.

The quote from Scout of _To Kill a Mockingbird_ in my sig pretty much says it all. "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." Reading is pretty much like breathing to me.

Betsy


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## rjspears (Sep 25, 2011)

As a writer, I'd love to say that I read fiction to learn -- to learn how other writers work their craft, but, truth be told, I'd have to say I read for escapism.

--
R.J. Spears


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## StephenLivingston (May 10, 2011)

Enjoyment.


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## mish (Jun 27, 2011)

The three E's...

Escape
Entertainment
Enjoyment

...in no particular order


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## Jimblob (Jan 15, 2013)

To escape fact and have some of that naive wonder and imagination back that we had when we were kids.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

Non-fiction gives us facts. Fiction gives us ideas.


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## Carrie Rubin (Nov 19, 2012)

NogDog said:


> I read fiction because I enjoy reading fiction. I can no more explain why I like it than I can explain why I like to eat chocolate.


Same here. And that goes for the chocolate, too.  But I suppose it's about the escape and a chance to discover or learn something new.


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## Sean Patrick Reardon (Sep 30, 2010)

Escapism


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## Brownskins (Nov 18, 2011)

Not sure if this helps... but

Reading is one of the essentials - eat, sleep, love, exercise, read, fellowship.

Fiction just happens to be an easy genre to read.


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## cheriereich (Feb 12, 2011)

To get out of my head and into someone else's.


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## brianjanuary (Oct 18, 2011)

Entertainment, pure and simple. It's what I think novels are made for!


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

A person who does not read experiences the life they lead. A person who reads has infinite lives.


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## Sumer54 (Feb 9, 2013)

It's the perfect route to a place you've never seen.


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## Anotherdreamer (Jan 21, 2013)

Talking about learning things, I loved Fight Club's interesting little bits of information.

I also love when a book delves into areas that make you question your beliefs.


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## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

Escape, entertainment, education. All the reasons that have already been touched on. However, I think there's something more to it. I think all of us humans are always subconsciously hunting for something that's just a little bit beyond existence. Something just around the corner, always out of reach. Like a color we've never seen that's slightly out of the capability of our eyes. Something we unconsciously hope for, even though we don't realize it. Maybe we look for it in stories and dreams and daydreams.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

KRCox said:


> What is your number one reason for reading fiction?


Usually escape from boredom. Occasionally distraction from something unhappy going on in my life.


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## Guest (Feb 11, 2013)

Escapism and entertainment, but also for new viewpoints and ideas. It is a chance to stretch the imagination and go somewhere I probably won't get a chance to, or in the case of the far future or distant past, visit somewhere I could never reach.


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## RosanneRivers (Jan 21, 2013)

To me, it's so I can be a part of so many different lives; when you read, you live the same life as the protaganist, and so you experience situations you might never be in, or re-live ones you've been in but without the actual risk posed to the characters. So yeah, escapism in a word!


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