This is my toddler. Hugging a gravestone. Laughing with glee. She comes by her weirdness honestly, at least.
I've been inspired. I was thinking over all the recent weighty discussions (haha, no pun intended...) and trying to think of moving on with something a little easier. If you have no interest in trying something new, you better leave now. Because I've got quite the challenge for you.
The first part. A debate. This is a sort of fun debate, because there is really no wrong answer, it being a simple preference based mostly on personality. (I think??) Simply put, which is better, Fiction or Non-Fiction?
You might name the two camps thus: Fiction is for people who have Attention Deficit Disorder and have to be tricked into thinking. Non-fiction is for people who have absolutely no imagination.
Which position do you subscribe to? Why? Anyone living a double life and catering to both equally?
I shall give my position, since this is my blog and I can say whatever I want. I read 95% fiction. Now, my 5% of nonfiction may actually be a larger quantity than someone else's 100% due to my actual volume of reading, but still, you are far more likely to grab my attention with a story that isn't true, or at least one that's written that way. For example, if you want to teach me about growing a good potato, it's best that you make the potato farmer a beautiful yet misunderstood young woman living in 1734 in Ireland who meets a really strong, yet sensitive and good looking guy who at first spars with her but ultimately falls madly in love with her. You'll do even better by me if they end up getting married and inventing the time machine together and go back in time to save the lost city of Atlantis where they find a colony of aliens who have been living in cognito on planet earth for three hundred years. Now that's a potato book that I will stay up all night to read.
Sorry. Can you tell I love to write fiction? ...Any kind of fiction?
How about you? What floats your boat? What sets your sails? Tell us about it. Tell us why you feel that way. Pretend its the most important debate you'll ever take upon your humble soul. Feel free to be snarky, sarcastic, opinionated and hotheaded, as in the end it's all in good fun and we'll all pretty much keep reading whatever we want to read regardless of what anyone says.
Then the challenge. A little more difficult. I dare you to read whatever it is that you don't usually read. Expand your horizons. For me, this requires that I actually take a look at "How to Sell Your Novel" which has been patiently waiting at the bottom of my library bag for a few weeks. What does it mean for you?
Oh, and in all your snarkiness, make sure you advertise the best book you ever read.
And tomorrow I have an even scarier challenge for you!
And just so you know, spell check doesn't think snarky is a word.
I cannot resist a good debate. I read both fiction and non-fiction, but I enjoy fiction a little more. I, too, like a good story.
ReplyDeleteI have found it much more challenging to write fiction, however. That's why my novel remains on my computer word processor and not in print yet while I have self-published three non-fiction books.
The best fiction I have read recently would be "Peace Like a River" by what's-his-name! His name escapes me at the moment. This is not Christian fiction, but it is clean, enjoyable and it makes you think about Christian themes. And it is a good story.
Leif Enger. The author's name. "Peace Like A River."
ReplyDeleteohh! me!! i wanna go first!!!
ReplyDeleteas to the debate part: DUH. hands down, i'm a fiction gal. but you already knew that.
which for me, is ironic, b/c i can only write good nonfiction. but maybe that's b/c my life has been a bit dramatic of late.
the challenge part: i'm doing that now. i'm currently reading no less than four nonfiction books. not quickly, mind you, but they are being read. and underlined even. (gasp!)
i'm not going to bore you with my list of favorites in the fiction genre, b/c they're all the same as yours or i've already told you and you didn't like them.
nonfiction faves: a praying life (paul miller), as silver refined (currently reading; kay arthur). i also like history and photography books.
hey! i was supposed to be first!
ReplyDeleteThank you both for your comments. Yes, Kat, I know yours. At least your fiction. I didn't know you'd stretched to read some non-fiction. Applause to you.
ReplyDeleteI may have to look into "Peace Like a River."
well, to be honest, some of it was "assigned". but still.
ReplyDeleteand i'm not reading it with nearly the amount of gusto that i'm reading lessman's newest.
Okay, I'll join the family debate. Since I have to choose between fiction and nonfiction, I'll have to choose fiction. There are many wonderful nonfiction books out there, and I have read a share of them, but mostly I resort to a semi-nonthinking form of fiction for entertainment purposes. I love/hate those books you can't put down until you finish them even if it's not until 4 am. As far as my favortie book, I can't say. There are too many books that I love and read over and over and over again.
ReplyDeleteIt's fiction all the way for me! After thinking all day at work & dealing with life, it's my way of escape & relaxation. I just don't want to think anymore at the end of the day. I want to be entertained & swept away into another world. I think you know my favorite, if you remember, because it's one of yours. I love Francine Rivers Marks of the Lion series. I've also enjoyed all of the Frank Peretti books I've read so far. And, as a family, we just finished the Tedd Decker series with Black, Red, White & Green on cd. We all enjoyed those.
ReplyDeleteI have stepped out & have been working on some nonfiction, as well. I figured I really need to balance it. I just finished When People are Big & God is Small. That was a good one. Now, I'm working on my Bible study at MBC.
I really love reading & wish I had more time to do it, but working FT & life keep getting in my way. :)
Fiction. More specifically, historical fiction. I LOOOOOVE history, and do enjoy historical non-fiction, but I really enjoy historical fiction.
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry Mandy, but I would've never grown potatoes with your version... I'm not into the love story side of fiction. ;) But if the farmer would have figured out how to use them as natural grenades in a war for what is right, then I might. :)
I also enjoy classical fiction. Right now I'm reading The Scarlet Letter again.
I enjoy non-fiction as well, as long as it's something I'm interested in, or convicted enough to need to change something in my life. ;) Right now I'm {still} working through 'As Silver Refined' and doing a Bible study on Esther.
Kathy, I've been working through 'As Silver Refined' for about a year now. It's a VERY hard one for me to work through. I will pray for you as you read it! And kudos to you for still liking an 'assigned' book. All the books I have been assigned to read were instantly my enemies whether or not they were the best books ever... that's a bit of rebelliousness in me. :P
I'm also reading a non-fiction called 'Creative Correction' by Lisa Whelchel. I am LOVING her ideas on parenting, mostly because they come from her experience with her 3 kids, and her son is very similar to Noah in behavior.
Of course, I will add, with the limited amount of time I have to read each day (or choose to read each day instead of passing out), I'm lucky to get through a few pages in even one of the books I'm reading.
Oh, and I've never read the Mark of the Lion series despite all the rave reviews from Mandy and others. I need to get on that... ;)
My favorite fiction containing book is the Bible.
ReplyDeleteisn't having a stalker fun?
ReplyDeleteinteresting. i find it fascinating that a book that can cross reference other historical books written at the same time by secular philosophers and writers regarded to be geniuses at that time, is considered fiction.
ReplyDeletenot to mention the secular scientists and archaeologists that have attempted to prove it as fiction, yet after their years of study and evidence, can only find proof of the truths written in its pages.
just sayin.
i thought anon was a doctor, but now i'm guessing a politician since debate seems to be what he draws to and asks for. :)
Did I stumble into a blog which appears to be a network that comprises a family diary? You all claim to be writers, may I read you works? I know it is a tough industry to get into.
ReplyDeleteTo Amy: are you choosing to place the genre of parables into the non-fiction category? Also, please list the other writings from the same period from "secular philosophers and writers" that are, as you claim, cross referenced by the collection of writings called the Bible (you can even use the books of the Maccabees if you'd like). I would be thankful to and them to my casual Ancient Near East studies. Playfulness aside, I am curious as to the writings you include in this category.
And by the way, scientists and archaeologists have not attempted to prove the writings in the Bible as fiction. They have followed the evidence, and there simply was no total annihilation of Canaanite children as ascribed to a command of Yahweh in the writings ascribed to Joshua and Samuel, amongst other things. Regards.
How do we know anon is a he? Can only boys be doctors? Huh? Huh? :)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, my favorite book is the internet. Because it contains all the genres.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I am waiting, with bated breath, the works you are asserting God's Word cross references that assures it's non-fiction status, or how such a principle (i.e. that one work cross-references another) grants it fiction or non-fiction status.
ReplyDeleteAlso, here are some other books "that can cross reference other historical books written at the same time by secular philosophers and writers": the Upanishads, the Brothers Karamazov, The Origin of Species, Newton's Principia. I could write such a book, one that "that can cross reference other historical books written at the same time by secular philosophers and writers ". This list demonstrates that your criterion does not adequately distinguish fiction from non-fiction.
Tom Parsons, you write "The best fiction I have read recently would be "Peace Like a River" by what's-his-name! His name escapes me at the moment."
ReplyDeleteI presume you were sitting at a computer with a active internet connection when you wrote this blog comment. Does it not nearly take longer to write "His name escapes me at the moment" than to do this author of "the best fiction" you have recently read the courtesy of opening up another tab on your browser and doing basic research so as to find the author of your favorite recent work of fiction?
Or is your sentence construction one of rhetoric, designed to have someone else chime in with the information?
Also, what exactly makes this book "not Christian fiction". I am honestly curious as to what your definition of Christian fiction is. In a country that is 85% christian, why does the great majority of christian fiction not reach a literary level considered by the populace to be particularly meritorious.
Hehe.. my apologies, I didn't see that you answered your own question! My questions remain in earnest.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the challenge Blog Writer, it is always a good reminder to read outside one's comfort level. To read something one even doesn't anticipate agreeing with. Our conformational biases often preclude us from advancing our own education.
ReplyDelete(-D)
(Some of the Anonymous comments are mine, I'll try to remember to sign them from here on.)
I see that my attempts to have a lighter conversation have failed. I'm not sure why a discussion about nonfiction verses fiction has resulted thus, but I'm suspicious it might have something to do with people who just like to pick fights.
ReplyDeleteThe Bible stands for itself. When someone disproves a single word with anything other than their own opinion I'll move it to the fiction pile.
Thank you for all the responses! Some good ideas for us all to consider!
Dearest Miranda, I don't think people are just trying to pick fights, and if so, you gave us permission to when you said this:
ReplyDelete"Feel free to be snarky, sarcastic, opinionated and hotheaded, as in the end it's all in good fun and we'll all pretty much keep reading whatever we want to read regardless of what anyone says."
There is some fiction in the Bible, presented as such, no? (parables) - I think that comment fell into the "snarkiness" category.
My spellchecker doesn't think snarkiness is a word, either, but it also doesn't think spellchecker is a word. And they say technology is becoming self-aware...
I wasn't talking to you. I don't think you are trying to pick fights.
ReplyDeleteYes, I thought of parables being a bit of literary fiction after I said that. But I think everyone knows what I mean.
And there goes my 20 seconds of free time. It's midnight and my battery is dead.
G'night!
Okay so my favorite is Non-fiction, but it needs to be writen well. I like some fiction, especially ones that are challenging and have a deeper meaning. Like "To Kill a Mocking Bird", "The Scarlet Letter" or "Chronicals of Narnia", but rarely do I give myself permision to sit down and kick my feet up and read fiction.
ReplyDeleteThere's so much I want to learn and I seem to be able to learn it faster reading non-fiction or by trying it.
Wow! I used to be sad that no one read my blog. Now I'm happy b/c at least I don't have anyone who is just trying to be argumentative and superior, like the first anon. And no, I'm not signing in under my blog b/c I don't want anon stalking me there and picking my blogs apart. I don't want to sound rude, but I think someone needs to get a life and stop taking everything so serious! This blog was intended to be fun and light and you totally pulled it down.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the warm christian welcome and honest christian responses here at this blog from some of the commenters.
ReplyDeleteAnon.
I really don't think anybody is trying to be argumentative or superior. What good is discussion, or debate, as it has been called, if everybody agrees with each other? Why not be challenged to be able to back up your position and be even more confident in it, or to maybe consider something in a new or different way? I already mentioned that we were encouraged to be hotheaded and opinionated, and that seems to apply to more than one of us, but we were also encouraged to "pretend it's the most important debate you'll ever take upon your humble soul." And also to remember it's all in good fun...which I think is how everyone started out, including Anonymous (I think the 2nd anon may be the one being singled out). The responses to one single probably sarcastic comment were pretty vehement, too, so I don't think we can accuse just one person of taking things too seriously. Although now feel free to accuse me.
ReplyDeleteI have read that Anna Karenina is the best novel ever written. It is fiction based in nonfiction.
ReplyDeleteAs are the parables of the Bible.
Yes they are. Very well structured fiction in fact.
ReplyDeleteI heard the first line of Anna Karenina in a game recently and it sounded interesting. I may have to put that on my mental list.
I would address all the previous comments but it's been a few days now so I'm going to use that as my excuse to play the coward and.... not.
Doooooooo it
ReplyDelete