Making a transition from Non-fiction to Fiction reading.

Submitted by Icy-Chard9519 t3_127uvkz in books

Hi everybody. I recently started reading fiction and it has been difficult. I have read a lot, but most (all) of my reading was non-fiction. The thing about non-fiction is most of the time you can get through it without having to think or visualize a lot.

So, I started reading fiction to increase my vocabulary and articulation. However, whenever I read fiction it feels like I'm just reading mindlessly and not understanding anything. If I read non-fiction mindlessly I would at least understand half of the things but with fiction, I just get overwhelmed by the details.

My goal is to read a lot of fiction to achieve my goal.

So, how do you guys read fiction?

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Comments

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MorriganJade t1_jefyngw wrote

When I read fiction I'm deeply focused and absorbed in the text and visualizing what I read, so it's quite different for me. My advice would be to read something straightforward and short, like the Murderbot diaries novellas for example, which I love

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the_honest_liar t1_jefz652 wrote

Maybe try fiction books that are in a similar subject area to non-fiction books you enjoy. If you like history read historical fiction, if you like travel books read a book set in a place you've read about. If you're sort of familiar with the setting/background that could be less you have to visualize.

It's sort of backwards from my usual suggestion, but if there's a movie try watching that first. Then read the book and your brain will probably automatically think about the movie descriptions and characters, so it might be easier to get in to.

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littlebrowncat999 t1_jefza90 wrote

When I read books with a ton of detail, I constantly flip back to pages I have read and reread them. Especially if seems like there is a discrepancy in what I am reading and what I have read.

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Choice_Mistake759 t1_jefzzbw wrote

>can get through it without having to think or visualize a lot.

You do not actually have to visualize fiction. I think it is a bit weird you can read non fiction without thinking, if anything I would think non fiction requires even more thinking than fiction. some non fiction actually requires visualizing to understand properly.

Can you give some examples of that non fiction which worked for you and the fiction which did not?

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Current_Argument4876 t1_jeg1j6b wrote

Replying to the_honest_liar (#2,544,574)

I agree with this! My husband was an exclusively non-fiction reader, history and political science books. So when we started reading fiction, he enjoyed A Game of Thrones (based off War of the Roses) and Dune (tons of political intrigue) and that helped him start the journey and he’s branched out from there.

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ReadWriteHikeRepeat t1_jeh11o1 wrote

Maybe start by reading nonfiction that tells a story, like Educated by Tara Westover.

Becoming Nicole is a great (nonfiction) story about a family with a son that transitions at a young age to a daughter. If it resonates, try This is How it Always Is, a novel by Laurie Frankel on the same subject. Both are engaging reads, but the fiction has more humor. It might be an interesting experiment.

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