How is your book reading divided between fiction and non-fiction?
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Fiction all the way. (Score:2, Interesting)
Why would I read non-fiction.. I have real life drama for that junk.
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Why would I read non-fiction.. I have real life drama for that junk.
Tell us about it. We won't judge you here.
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Reference material? Manuals? News?
why would i waste my time with silly stories when i could be learning facts and useful information or skills
Re:Fiction all the way. (Score:5, Interesting)
News, Manuals, etc. I read online.....no need for books when I'm looking for shorter informative articles. Books, however, I'll read fiction.
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News, Manuals, etc. I read online.....no need for books when I'm looking for shorter informative articles. Books, however, I'll read fiction.
Joke's on you... most news, and some manuals, are also fiction.
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Yeah, why have hobbies when you could just work yourself to the grave. People do things for fun. You can learn from fiction also, imagination is a precious thing. Reading good fiction trains it. Fiction usually examines some social/environmental/whatever problem. It's not uselee, compared, to, say, reading some datasheets that will be old and useless in three years. Good stories are human culture, from campfires to modern skyscrapers, good fiction has engaged their listeners/rreaders, and made them think fu
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Reference Manuals that Aren't Fiction?? (Score:2)
Where do you find those?
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fiction more truthful (Score:1)
These days im finding more truth in the fiction and comedy sections.
The internet is for real (Score:3)
There's enough news, blogs and documentation on the internet to cover my non-fiction needs.
I would say my book reading is 100% fiction but for Guy Gavriel Kay pseudo-historical fiction or RPG splat-books that describe real locations and History such as Ars Magica.
If I'm using books, it's because I don't want to stare at a screen before bed.
Internet is 99.999999999% crap. (Score:2, Insightful)
The Internet or specifically the Web, is mostly shit: PR posing as news, "articles" by kooks, and parroted opinions by people who are unable to have an original thought.
It is one big peanut gallery and I'll have to take a long shower for participating in it today.
It is one big echo chamber and it doesn't help that the word "Troll" was created. See, I am currently reading Hitchens' and his essays would be immediately be labeled a "Troll" if he were to post here. Maybe he did when he was alive.
The web is du
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If I'm using books, it's because I don't want to stare at a screen before bed.
By obligation, I'm supposed to say "I use an e-reader, you insensitive clod", but I fail to see how my choice of reading method in any way influences your sensitivity or cloddiness (or lack thereof).
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There's enough news, blogs and documentation on the internet to cover my non-fiction needs.
To me, "There's enough news, blogs and documentation on the internet to cover my fiction needs."
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That too, but then what would I read before bed?
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That too, but then what would I read before bed?
"The Analysis of Linear Partial Differential Operators I: Distribution Theory and Fourier Analysis." It'll put you right to sleep.
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Hey, thanks! I'll get on to that right aaawwwwaaayyyyyyy zzzzzzzzzzz
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I actually do this. During the day I'll read the fiction that is the internet, or listen to audiobooks while commuting. Late night, I'll read a quantum physics or cosmology textbook or technical popularized science. That way I don't stay up late reading, but long term I learn something.
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There's enough news, blogs and documentation on the internet to cover my FICTION needs.
More non-fiction now, for complicated reasons (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to read more fiction than non-fiction, but that has reversed as I've gotten older. This evolution happened slowly and without me being consciously aware of it most of the time, but recently I've been wondering "why?" What I've decided is that there is more good but non-challenging non-fiction than there is fiction.
Some books are challenging to read -- and that's great. I like a good mental workout. But it can take me a month or so to work through a book like that. For instance, right now I'm reading Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition by David Nirenberg. It's excellent and I highly recommend it, but it's also exhausting! I can read maybe 20 pages of it a night, four or five nights a week.
So often I want something a little lighter. I might read 2-4 challenging books in a year, but something like 8-10 easier ones. The problem is that while I want something "lighter" and "easier," I still want those books to be intelligent, well-written, etc. In short, I want them to be good. Sometimes this is a problem.
Both fiction and non-fiction can be challenging or non-challenging, as well as good or bad. What I've found is that it's much easier to find non-challenging but still good non-fiction. With fiction, books that are non-challenging are often pretty bad, and books that are good are often fairly challenging. For example, a while back I read the Song of Ice and Fire books. The first few were great! Dead center in the venn diagram overlap between non-challenging and good. But as the series progressed, the books started to get more ... well, bad. The most recently one, while still not challenging, was also not very good.
If anyone can recommend novels that are both good and non-challenging, I'd love some suggestions!
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http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4135826-in-the-courts-of-the-sun [goodreads.com] i have the first book it was the best thing i've read in a while didn't realize it was a trilogy until i looked it up for you i will read the other two books sometime...
good, non-challenging: Lem and Borges? (Score:2)
If you haven't read anything by Stanislaw Lem, you might find he fits the bill. He wrote "Solaris", and I was a fan of both the Russian film version by Tarkovsky and the more recent one with George Clooney. Then, read the book and it was much more interesting, so I started finding more of his work (and more to like). I really like his "Cyberiad" robot fables, which are deceptively childlike but have lots to think about.
Also, for short, very smart fiction, if you haven't read any of his work, try Borges.
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The "Robot Fables" are the funniest thing I ever read (actually I did not read them, but on parties a Physics Doctor used to start reading from them).
It is really hilarious ... for those who have no idea, imagine a ferry land with knights and princesses on an ice planet like Pluto.
The knights fighting for the favor of princesses, obviously. However: all the inhabitants are robots. Intelligent robots, but robots.
So one of the scenes I remember is, one knight is trying to ambush another one, ofc because he is
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Any of Isaacson's biographies are worth reading.
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For example, a while back I read the Song of Ice and Fire books. The first few were great! Dead center in the venn diagram overlap between non-challenging and good. But as the series progressed, the books started to get more ... well, bad. The most recently one, while still not challenging, was also not very good.
If you've read it you should be able to call it A Dance with Dragons instead of "the most recently (sic) one" unless you're talking about one of the ASOIAF side projects? There is a lot going on in Martin's five core ASOIAF books. If you do enjoy them, they stand up very well to multiple passes through. Certain events are foreshadowed much earlier than they occur and minor events seem to fit better into the grand scheme of things the second time through. At a minimum consider re-reading Storm of Swords
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If you've read it you should be able to call it A Dance with Dragons
What stupid insult is that?
There are people, like me that are bad with names. If you want to know what I have read the last 5 weeks I have to dig the books out and basically copy/paste the names. Because: I can not remember names. Yes I know makes it pretty difficult to explain in an university test how a Knuth-Moriss-Pratt or a Boyer-Moore algorithm works. (I know both, can explain both, but without googleing I don't know which is which,
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John Brunner: Shockwaverider, Sheep Looking Up, Stand on Zanzibar. I assume they are a bit challenging.
What type of Non-Fiction? And fiction? (Score:4, Informative)
Non fiction tends to get a bad rap because people think of reading a text book from school. But not every piece of non fiction is as dry as reading an encyclopedia -- there are plenty of books that are both as gripping as any fiction novel, and also illuminating.
A great example is Matterhon by Karl Marlantes. The book is technically non-fiction because it's true, but it's written as a novel (about being in Vietnam). It was as gripping as any fiction writer's novel, but by the end of it you really have a good sense of what it was like to be in Vietnam, and a better understanding of the struggle of Veterans returning home.
Then there is non fiction that's maybe better titled "self help." If you're reading those books, it's a different type of reading. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Awaken the Giant -- all these sorts of books will be a really great help for your career and life. But if I'm sitting down and reading one, it's not because I'm looking to get lost (as the case will be when Patrick Rothfuss releases his next novel), but because I want to improve my life[1]. Same thing when I'm trying to brush up on my skills and stay current with new reference books. And the reading is different. While I might get lost in a novel by Neil Gaiman, for instance, reading of 7 Habits is more methodical, as in "I should read a chapter tonight"
Conversely, not all fiction has worlds you want to just get lost in. Ulysses, Proust's Remembrances of Things past [2], and any other number of books classified as "literature" present mountains to climb, partly for just the feeling of accomplishment that comes with finishing them. They can feel more like reading 7 Habits, as in "Oh I should read a few more chapters to better myself"
[1] You may laugh at this. I laughed at people who read such books when I was 20. But what I've found in my old age is that they really can help you in your career. For instance, your boss won't promote you to a manager if he doesn't think you're ready. While you might consider trial and error as a learning path, it'll be much longer. And it's a bit foolish, because only a fool would learn from his own mistakes when he can just spend some time and find out from others how to do what he wants.
[2] If you're prone to argue about the translation of the title (literary nerds unite!), let's just call it À la recherche du temps perdu.
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"as dry as reading an encyclopedia?". Really? For me encyclopedias are fascinating. I tried reading a few fiction books but could never stay interested past a chapter or two. The strange part is I enjoy watching sci-fi movies but have no interest in reading sci-fi books.
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As always YMMV depending on interests.
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Then there is non fiction that's maybe better titled "self help." If you're reading those books, it's a different type of reading. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Awaken the Giant -- all these sorts of books will be a really great help for your career and life. But if I'm sitting down and reading one, it's not because I'm looking to get lost (as the case will be when Patrick Rothfuss releases his next novel), but because I want to improve my life[1]. Same thing when I'm trying to brush up on my skills and stay current with new reference books. And the reading is different. While I might get lost in a novel by Neil Gaiman, for instance, reading of 7 Habits is more methodical, as in "I should read a chapter tonight"
[1] You may laugh at this. I laughed at people who read such books when I was 20. But what I've found in my old age is that they really can help you in your career. For instance, your boss won't promote you to a manager if he doesn't think you're ready. While you might consider trial and error as a learning path, it'll be much longer. And it's a bit foolish, because only a fool would learn from his own mistakes when he can just spend some time and find out from others how to do what he wants.
I'm a big fan of self-help books and all kinds of books that help me learn more about myself and other people. Good reads are Rosenberg about Non violent communication, Alan Pease - Body Language [goodreads.com], The Four Agreements [google.nl] by Don Miguel Ruiz, Don't shoot the dog [amazon.com] by Karen Pryor about positive conditioning, and Why don't zebras get ulcers [amazon.com] - about stress. Right now I'm reading The Tibetan book about living and dying [amazon.com]. This stress book is quite a mental workout if you're not comfortable with many chemical terminology
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Should anyone be interested in daily events and news articles from exactly one hundred years ago, please check out Old Grey Horror [twitter.com].
As for fi
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I had to force myself to finish War and Peace, I'm somewhat of a completionist once I start something. The underlying story was actually interesting but the method of telling the story was incredibly tedious. People complain about the wheel of time series but honestly it's got nothing on war and peace in this regard. I think this partly stems from my age and expectations based on what I've already read and am accustomed to reading. Although I've noticed some of the same issues in other works like the scarle
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War and Peace was better than I expected (Score:2)
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As far as I'm concerned, Matterhorn is non fiction. Sure he's changed the names of people and woven the story together in a way that reads like a novel, but if you read his other books (like What is it like to go to war?) which are more essays about war, you'll see he didn't really make anything important to the story up. Although I do understand how the fact that he writes it like a novel might make it seem like fiction.
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100% fiction not including learning materials (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm 100% fiction not including learning materials even though they are in books I've just never really considered those "books". Study aids aren't books in my mind for whatever reason.
In research, the line blurs (Score:2)
It's a hard slog. I wish I could get back in to pure fiction but I keep getting people asking me to crunch more unordered, random data and somehow make sense of it.
Sometimes I actually manage just that.
80/20 fiction/nonfiction (Score:2)
Do textbooks count as nonfiction? (Score:1)
If so, then 100% Non-Fiction.
Otherwise, I don't know / I don't read books much.
p.s. I got my college degree over 15 years ago, but I've read more textbooks in the past 5 years than I did when I was in school.
What are books? (Score:1)
I read mostly non-fiction on the internet, and mostly fiction on paper. For some reason I really prefer to read fiction on real books instead of on the computer.
/me shakes fist at Neal Stephenson (Score:4, Funny)
His Baroque Cycle keeps throwing tidbits of history in there that actually educate the audience. People should be warned.
Read? How about writing and editing? (Score:1)
I have not read any books lately - unless you include the books that I've written or am prepping for publication. I'm still finding punctuation errors, missing words, and misplaced spaces.
I'm only counting books (Score:3)
I'm only counting books when I say 100% fiction. If I include reading on the intarweeb, it's probably 50-50 due to all the news sites and documentation I peruse.
wow (Score:1)
I read history books and pop science books 3:1 to fiction. I basically read a sci fi book after i get worn out on really dense non fiction. I read about 40 books a year.
blogs and websites dont count for shit. it doesny really suprise me so many dont read to learn. A lot of narcissists here know everything after 5 minutea on the web.
What's the difference? (Score:3)
Honestly, to this day, as books concerned, I do not know the difference between "fiction" and "non-fiction".
On more than one occasion I was told that the "fiction" is a genre of its own, not related to the sci-fi and the fantasy, which I read the most.
P.S. Since it is a /., using the opportunity, one might as well ask other what e-book readers they do use. And when they find time to read the books.
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Honestly, to this day, as books concerned, I do not know the difference between "fiction" and "non-fiction".
Non-fiction is fiction that has been agreed upon by a committee.
Define "read" (Score:4, Interesting)
The truth is that I almost never read books any more. I listen to them, because audio books are much more efficient for me. Of course the narrators speak much more slowly than I read text (even though I often run them at 2X speed), but while listening I can accomplish something else, too. I can listen while exercising, while driving, while fixing things around the house, shoveling snow, cleaning the cars, etc., etc., etc. This makes reading less of an indulgence and more of an optimization. I find that the amount of non-fiction I consume has increased dramatically of late (used to be 90/10 in favor of fiction, now it's 60/40 in favor of non-fiction), though I'm not sure if that's because I'm simply less interested in fiction than I used to be or because of some aspect of the format.
The big downside to audiobooks, of course, is that a lot of stuff hasn't been produced in audio format. Audible has a pretty good selection, but it's a tiny fraction of what's available in print, and a fraction biased towards popularity (which is good and bad). A lesser disadvantage is that the quality of an audiobook is dependent almost as much on the skill of the narrator as on the skill of the author. In particular, a bad narration can ruin a great book (though even an outstanding narration can rarely save a bad one). Oh, and there's also cost; audiobooks are more expensive, even with Audible's platinum membership, and they can't be easily lent or resold, but on balance I'm willing to pay the higher prices for all of the advantages I get from audio.
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I got my phone to read Kindle books and it changed my life. Look up accessibility settings, iPhone and Android can both do it. Any Kindle book is now read during my commute. Sure, some pronunciation is awful, but giving me an extra 5+ hours reading each week is a godsend.
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I got my phone to read Kindle books and it changed my life. Look up accessibility settings, iPhone and Android can both do it. Any Kindle book is now read during my commute. Sure, some pronunciation is awful, but giving me an extra 5+ hours reading each week is a godsend.
Don't ever try real audiobooks, read by a talented voice actor rather than a computer. You'll never be able to go back.
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Yeah, I know. They are a much better experience.
Sometimes they offer audio files for just a few dollars more. They are way better, but I am usually too cheap for it. And I don't want any hassle from questionable downloads. So I will stick with my robot voice reading to me for now.
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I wish I could do that, but I'm personally unable to listen to an audiobook while doing anything else without completely losing track of what's going on in the audiobook. The few audiobooks I've listened to in my life (definitely fewer than 10) I listened to while driving or while just lying in bed, actively listening.
You don't count DRIVING as "doing anything else"? Lovely. I hope I don't live near you.
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Driving a familiar route should be "management by exception". I listen to audiobooks while commuting too, and I certainly lose track when anything "interesting" happens on the road (sucks, as my car doesn't have a way to "rewind" through bluetooth), but fortunately that's usually just a few seconds at a time, so I can still follow the book.
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Driving a familiar route should be "management by exception"...
No. Just no.
When you are piloting a multi-ton death machine inches from others, you should not be doing anything but driving. The 32,479 traffic fatalities in 2011 were the lowest in 69 years. We lose that many people because of attitudes like yours. There's no other way to say it.
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Alas, statistics on automobile fatalities are messed up greatly by those interpreting the raw data. Driving impaired (alcohol, marijuana (2.5%)) is one of three leading categories, another is aggressive driving (speeding and erratic driving), the final is distracted driving (meaning acts that take attention (mostly visual) off the road. That's eating, texting, and much of cell phone use. Radio and audiobooks don't fall into this category.) Weather comes next, then running stop signs and red lights, then bei
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And I didn't describe "white knuckle" driving, I was describing driving on nearly any highway.
I think you're caught up in a perception that you don't realize, because you've lived with manually driven machines on public roads all your life.
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I wish I could do that, but I'm personally unable to listen to an audiobook while doing anything else without completely losing track of what's going on in the audiobook.
What I have found is that the kind of driving I am doing matters a lot when listening to audio books. If there needs to be any frontal cortex decision making (route planning, looking for unexpected obstacles, driving in the city), then audio books aren't an option. There is simply no way to pay attention to both at the same time.
My work commute is about 15 minutes each way, and is on the highway. With this kind of driving I have no problem listening to a book while driving.
Mundane chores are also a good
Missing option (Score:2)
90 - 95% science fiction, 5-10% non fiction
would be more non-fiction if magazines were counted. (like Discover, Science News, BBC Focus, Astromomy Magazine)
plus dead tree mags like SciAm PopSci, PopMech and NatGeo
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What's wrong with the 80/20 fiction/non-fiction option? Is science fiction not fiction? What's the purpose of being more specific in a poll? Should we have 80/20 science-fiction/non-fiction, 80/20 historical-fiction/non-fiction, 80/20 literary-fiction/non-fiction and so on?
A bimodal distribution? (Score:3)
That's a neat graph at 2332 votes: there are two peaks, at 80/20 and at 20/80. Interesting.
Something is wrong (Score:3)
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Personally, I'm not a fast reader of books. I use them to stimulate my thinking and my mind wanders. The better the book -- non-fiction of course -- the slower I read it.
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You might give audio books a try. The only books that I read these days are reference books on demand, but I listen to all kinds of literature for enjoyment.
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As several people have mentioned in this story, have you tried audiobooks?
but but... (Score:1)
Interesting. (Score:2)
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Seems absolutely impossible to read 100% fiction given that most of the reading material around us every day is non-fiction, or at least "corporate non-fiction". I'm assuming we're discussing what we read for entertainment, not for work, or for our daily lives.
It's all fiction, baby... (Score:2)
Good comment - more non-fiction with age (Score:2)
But I read some computing subjects, some Astronomy subjects, some philosophy (I guess you call it - Sam Harris?). Whatever turns my crank.
One of the joys of being older is that you can read what you want - and by and large you know what you like. I joined a book cl
Missing option: undetermined (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm reading the Bible and books about it, to try to figure out whether or not it's fiction.
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Interestingly, it could be both.
Parts of it are almost certainly historical, especially the New Testament. Historians are fairly confident that they really are letters written around 100AD from one person to another.
Now, is everything that is said in those letters "truth"? That's the tricky part.
But its just like reading, say, one of Thomas Jefferson's letters. Its certainly non-fiction. Thomas Jefferson definitely wrote it. Was he wrong with what he said? Maybe, maybe not. But its not fiction.
The Ol
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You meant "Science Fiction" or "Fantasy" or not?
Or how do you approach the plagues in Egypt, the splitting of the red sea or the god sitting in the bush of fire?
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Well, I figure the first step is to try to understand what literary form its authors appear to have intended for its interpretation: allegory, wisdom literature, factual history, etc.
If it's apparently meant as factual history, then the question is, "well, did this really happen?" I'm not going to simply assume that they didn't, as that would be begging the question.
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Noah's Ark is also one of the many examples of failure in copying or translation. Several sentences are used up describing how the ark, made of "gopher wood", is to be heavily treated with pitch to prevent leaks. There's much discussion amongst apologists trying to identify just what "gopher wood" is, there being no other reference in antiquity. The simple answer is likely that "gopher" is a copying failure of "kopher" (the g and k being very similar in the source language), and "kopher" means treated with
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I'm reading the Bible and books about it, to try to figure out whether or not it's fiction.
Mythology is fiction. Sorry believers. It's just as much myth as all the religions that came before it (and after).
Phew! Thanks for that. I was on the fence, but not that a random person on the internet has simply asserted a position on the subject, my investigation is over!
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Books on the Bible are not fiction either, because they are analyses of a book that actually exists; however, I cannot say much about the Bible itself.
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Where does Mythology start?
The city of Troy existed. So did the war around it ending in its destruction.
Did the Horse of Troy exist? No one knows. Did Odysseus really live at that time, did he live at all? No one knows (or well, lost touch to it, perhaps we meanwhile know he did). ... Ajax? No idea.
Did Achilles live? Perhaps, we have no proof. Hector? Perhaps, too. And so on
Agamemnon? YES! Priamos? YES!
So I'm a bit tired about this "mythology" is not "truth". Of course it is not. But it is not untrue either
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Why wouldn't it be?
Why wouldn't it be "either fact or fiction"? Well, I guess there are certain literary forms that are meant to be factual but only in a highly allegorical sense, which might make them neither clearly fact nor clearly fiction.
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Thanks for reminding me of that theory about the origin on Judaism. I'll try to check into how Christian theologians accommodate or dismiss that theory.
I am perplexed... (Score:2)
Halves (Score:2)
Was a 50-50 option too obvious to include?
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But mine is 50-50. I enjoy reading both, and I consciously read 1 fiction and 1 non-fiction at the same time. Overall I am pretty sure the time spend is close to 50-50, depending my interest in the 2 books I am currently reading, the time spend may vary a bit. Sometimes I get so engaged, I marathon one of the books, and slow read the other. Number of books wise in the past 5 years it would be 50-50. Time-wise it should be really close to 50-50.
By what measure? (Score:3)
100% Non-fiction (Score:2)
I have tons of programming books, engineering books, algorithms books, data manuals, etc., all of which I read for enjoyment and to better myself as an engineer. I have read some fiction, but it's been a long while since I spent much time reading fiction. And then there's puzzle books which don't really fall into either category.
When I want fictional entertainment, I'll turn on the TV or go watch a movie.
I read a lot of product manuals... (Score:3)
Depending on the honesty of the vendor, I'd imagine that they're somewhere in between 60-90% Non Fiction.
But, seriously, there is always some crap in there that is either inaccurate, outdated, or just marketing puffery.
Fiction guilt (Score:2)
I almost consider fiction to be a guilty pleasure. I very much enjoy it, but every time I sit down to start reading a work of fiction, I have the nagging thought that I should be putting my reading time to better use by reading non fiction and learning things.
I could easily slip into 80/20 F/NF if I didn't specifically choose my books to lean more toward non-fiction.
I interpreted the question in terms of "content". Words, pages or whatever. A book like "Capital in the 21st Century" balances out a couple
Peter Watts! (Score:2)
However, I have been clued into how good Peter Watts is.
I'm currently reading "Blindsight" and holy crap what a great book. I'm going to have to read all this guys stuff now.
Fiction (Score:2)
Does fiction include about 50% of the technical documentation available?
Reading at work, for work (Score:2)
I voted 100% fiction. Because the 95% fiction and 5% computer literature did not exist (yes, I read "technical literature" for recreation purpose).
Reading stuff you "need to read" at work, like manuals, stackoverflow etc. are not a "reading habit" but part of work. (For me).
Actually the question would be more interesting if you could add genres. I basically exclusively read SF and very little fantasy. Of course sometimes I read a novel (criminal cases, thrillers), that are not SF. But I don't buy that stuff
20/80 fiction/non (Score:2)
i don't read much fiction anymore...last book i read was Signal and Noise by nate silver
last good fiction i recall right now was Mars Trilogy a few years ago
i thought about reading Gravity's Rainbow, but instead i just went to a nice bookstore and grabbed a copy off the shelf and read over it w/ a reader's guide open on my phone...it was nice actually
scifi needs to step up it's literary game imho...we're living the future now...we're practically in a Phillip K. Dick novel...got to be some good stories to te
I wrote my own book! (Score:2)
even a skeptic can find some non-fiction (Score:2)
When there are enough footnotes to chase down the data, there ARE books I'd call non-fiction. Here are two:
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/10335/age-of-betrayal-by-jack-beatty [randomhouse.com]
https://www.powells.com/biblio/9780393318371 [powells.com]
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I agree! Those damn proles, why did we bother teaching them to read? Education is wasted on them.