have you ever been improved by reading a fiction book?

Question

did you learn anything about the world or life, did it better you emotionally in anyway. if so what book had a lasting effect on you.

i have to admit, and with more then a little embarrassment that the harry potter books actually taught me something about myself and helped me to realize that no matter how good you are there will always be someone that doesn't like you and wants you to fail. that fact doesn't mean that YOU are flawed if people treat you like dump all the time.

p.s ...i know they were kids books but thats actually why they "inspired" me so well, i think some of the lessons i should have learned as a kid but didnt i learned by reading those books. really a great set of books.

Answer 1

Yes, I think it had.
The book I want to say about is The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini. After reading it I realised how lucky am I. The fate of Sohrab and Hassan leaves you with that kind of impression. I want to thank God and my parents for the wonderful life I have had. That was a very emotionally effective book.

Another book, Disgrace by JM Coetzee had a funny effect. I mean to say, tthat I am scared to read that book again. If you have read it, perhaps you will understand me better. I want to get into that book, in its setting, with a cane and flog two characters. That is not the normal way I feel for negative characters, but just theses two. So strong are my feelings...Such obstinate people!

TW K

Answer 2

Either would do. How elaborate the vocabulary of a work has less to do with the fiction/non-fiction distinction than it has to do with the target audience. While a difficult legal tome may use more elaborate language than a woman's romance novel, a science fiction story by a good writer is probably more elaborate than a biography of a celebrity. I would suggest you just read what appeals to you. If the reading is a pleasure you will probably do more of it and pick up more even from a poorer book and if you need to force yourself though something you don't enjoy. If you are afraid something too complex might be hard at your level of skill but something to simple would be dull, I'd suggest reading something that you have already read in French but wouldn't mind reading again in English or perhaps an English translation of a French work that you like. ( I'm currently reading a translation of a work that Milan Kundera wrote in French, it is brilliant.) I would say, that the hardest thing is probably figures of speech used in conversation and you will probably find more of that in dialog in fiction than in non-fiction. Good luck. I hope you are learning to come visit us here in the states.

Answer 3

My whole life has been and will be about reading. At first I used to hate to read books then I began to read these great books like lord of the rings and eragon and one of my favorites which is tuesdays with morrie. These books changed the way I percieved the world and now I have written my own book and I am waiting to publish it. It is just amazing how someone can write something that they are thinking of onto a piece of parchment and a thousand years later, that idea still lives on forever. Thats why writing and reading is my life. And whenever people ask me why I write books I reply to them a quote that I made "A writer writes so that a reader can read, without one there cannot be the other"

Answer 4

the most success full people learned how to get were there at today by reading fiction books. you can learn endless amount of knowledge from books 'the only thing that will change were you are now in life and were you will be in five years from now are the books you read and the people you associate with" there is a new book coming out this month called Lunching the leadership revolution by Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady its awesome i know them personally and got a preview of the book. all so a book that changed my life is Critical Choices That Change Lives: How Heroes Turn Tragedy Into Triumph by Daniel R. Castro it really see a different perspective on my life and were i was going.

Answer 5

I read a short book "A Child Called It" by Dave Pelzer... this book was about one of the worst cases of child abuse recorded in America at the time...(true story.... Dave Pelzer was the little boy in the book) I was about 15 yrs old when I read it.... I realized a few things... first... cases like this actually occur... second... there are some people in the world that are defenseless in some situations, and have no hope of escape unless at least one person has the heart to selflessly lend a hand... and third.... there are some seriously screwed up people in the world....

Answer 6

The Harry Potter books are the ones that got me into reading. and i guess it sort of influenced my way of think ing in some ways. but yeah i agree with you, some of the books that i have read have made me stronger as a person, in dealing with some situations.
but hands down, some books teach good lessons on life, love, and lost.

Answer 7

A Farewell To Arms by Hemmingway
Hannibal by Thomas Harris

Great stuff!

Answer 8

My life was forever altered by reading The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk. It made me see the world from a different point of view.

Answer 9

Les Miserables taught me that an act of undeserved grace and forgiveness can change a person's life in ways that nobody could ever predict.

I've tried to live out that kind of grace ever since.

Answer 10

Yes. Reading Don Quixote made me a chaser of windmills and seeker of impossible dreams. Pax - C