I generally prefer nonfiction to fiction but I think its healthy to include some fiction in ones diet. I think at the bottom of it all, my preference for nonfiction is really more aesthetic than practical. Given a choice, I usually read nonfiction that doesn't have any practical application to my life. I just like the way reading nonfiction feels more than I like the feeling of reading a made up story. But I'm not a purist; I like the idea of blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction - making up fake nonfictions and telling true stories as if they were fiction.

Which do you prefer: fiction or nonfiction? A perfect balance of both? Is this a false dichotomy? Are there other categories that should be mentioned here?

I generally prefer nonfiction to fiction but I think its healthy to include some fiction in ones diet. I think at the bottom of it all, my preference for nonfiction is really more aesthetic than practical. Given a choice, I usually read nonfiction that doesn't have any practical application to my life. I just like the way reading nonfiction feels more than I like the feeling of reading a made up story. But I'm not a purist; I like the idea of blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction - making up fake nonfictions and telling true stories as if they were fiction.

Which do you prefer: fiction or nonfiction? A perfect balance of both? Is this a false dichotomy? Are there other categories that should be mentioned here?

I generally prefer nonfiction to fiction but I think its healthy to include some fiction in ones diet. I think at the bottom of it all, my preference for nonfiction is really more aesthetic than practical. Given a choice, I usually read nonfiction that doesn't have any practical application to my life. I just like the way reading nonfiction feels more than I like the feeling of reading a made up story. But I'm not a purist; I like the idea of blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction - making up fake nonfictions and telling true stories as if they were fiction.

Which do you prefer: fiction or nonfiction? A perfect balance of both? Is this a false dichotomy? Are there other categories that should be mentioned here?

I enjoy both fiction and non-fiction. A rounded education will include an equal measure of both.

I also enjoy works that purposefully blur the distinction. Kerouac's mature novels do some of this by relying so heavily upon the narrator's immediate impressions, as opposed to the more traditional first-person protagonist like Jake Barnes.

Hunter Thompson goes a step further with his 'Gonzo Journalism'. I think it was Mankiewicz who said that Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 was the "least factual and most accurate account" of the campaign. And he was talking about that professional journalist's reporting for Rolling Stone magazine, which was later compiled into the book.

Which do you prefer: fiction or nonfiction? A perfect balance of both?

Is this a false dichotomy?

I suppose The Sun Also Rises is a children's book, then?

I simply have to disagree with you, Fido. Sure, today the most popular fiction is a matter of entertainment rather than art. But if you read Willa Cather's The Novel Demeuble, she makes this important distinction, between fiction for the purposes of amusement and fiction for the purposes of art.

And I am under the impression that art is not merely for children.

Which do you prefer: fiction or nonfiction? A perfect balance of both? Is this a false dichotomy? Are there other categories that should be mentioned here?

Fiction! Or, well, I read cookbooks and my schoolbooks, but fiction is just a lot more fun. I want to read a story, for me reading is escaping reality, so reading about reality is not something I like to do. I think it's like this: you get wiser by nonfiction, but you get to experience more by fiction. I mean, how often do you run across a dragon in real life?

Fiction may help people think, but I want to know

Interesting distinction but one has to think about things before things can be established as knowledge, right? A lot of new unknown or at least unconsidered ideas come in through fiction.

Not at all possible... We learn long before we can think, and cannot begin to examine all the knowledge we arrive with complete in the form of culture, which is knowledge...And we cannot add but little or none to the accepted knowledge of human kind...One must have facts to make thought more than speculation...

Right now I am thinking about what you are saying but I don't know what you are talking about.