12 Answers

  1. If we talk about “benefits”, then fiction is not just useful — it is more useful. Science pop only creates the illusion of knowing things we don't want to delve into, whereas fiction can fundamentally shape our ability to interact with other people.

    There are about a hundred fMRI studies on this topic, where the following correlations were noted::

    – Fiction develops empathy — the ability to understand and experience other people's emotions, motivation, and inner state.

    – Reading fiction helps you cope with decision-making in difficult situations, and calmly accept the variability and uncertainty.

    – Fiction reduces bias, the tendency to think in generalizations and stereotypes.

    – Finally, on a purely linguistic level, reading develops literacy, and the ability to understand others and express your thoughts clearly.

    All this happens because for the brain, roughly speaking, everything is real. By reading the book, he sets fire to the same neurons that are activated when things actually happen, because modeling hypothetical situations is paramount to our survival. Only the upper crust of our consciousness knows that what is happening is unreal, and sets priorities accordingly. The rest of the brain modulates everything for real.

    That is why literature is universal for all cultures and epochs. As we get used to what is happening, we seem to live additional lives, on behalf of distant people who have nothing to do with us, and thus we are able to expand the scope of our own emotional experience, on which our entire social life depends — and we, in general, do not have another life.

    And in this respect, fiction is not only useful, but it is also more useful than any other literature, including science fiction, technical literature, self-development books, and fiction.

    Links to some studies can be found in the comments to the question.

  3. Reading useful, I want to emphasize, fiction allows a person to develop themselves spiritually. It broadens your horizons, cultivates in you some thoughts about who and what you are. It makes you empathize with the characters of the works, and also encourages you to think about this or that problem.

    So I read Tolstoy's trilogy of novels “Childhood” “Adolescence” “Youth” and realized how deep this work is. “Rules of Life” is a kind of Bible for a little boy. These are all the ideas I've tried to draw from my life.

    One book from hood.literature can change your whole life, dear. You need to read such literature. It is necessary at least in order not to forget what it is to be a human being.

  4. Of course, it is useless to argue that books do not develop the brain. Not all of them, of course, but they develop them.

    The question is more interesting about vk publics. I can say for sure that such a public as TheQuestion (And even Zashkvarshn) develop, and even how, if you compare with all the same books about the eternal.

    So read everything that interests you, and you will benefit your brain anyway.

  5. To the previous answer, we can only add that fiction is great for expanding your horizons, increasing your vocabulary, and helping you develop literacy. So-called “innate literacy” is just a consequence of reading a lot of books from childhood.

  6. Minimum, the development of imagination and creativity in a person. I remember writing my first story at the age of 8-9, inspired by the nature stories we read at school. Well, the development of their own views on certain phenomena. Read dystopias, for example.

  7. For fun, of course. Everything else is just free additional options.

    Why eat ice cream – not for the calories it definitely has? For fun.

    One might argue that too many calories can be harmful, but too many books can also be harmful.�

    What do people like about art books? Usually people are interested in books by authors who have something to say, they have experience, the experience is reflected, and not just experienced, they have a position.

    A separate question is poems. In addition to the above, they are like music in relation to sounds, the highest form of text existence. “Eugene Onegin” could have been written in prose, but in verse it is much stronger.

    And, yes, these questions have already been asked and answered by interesting authors:

    TheQuestion: we will find those who will answer your questions.

    TheQuestion: we will find those who will answer your questions.

    TheQuestion: we will find those who will answer your questions.

  10. In fact reading certain books can lead to development:�

    1) educational – just here we mean textbooks, scientific pop, encyclopedias, etc., we get knowledge about how the world works, academic knowledge.

    2) skills, abilities, and everything that makes a person more advanced in terms of self-development: books about hobbies, business books, self-management, etc.

    3) spiritual, that is, books that educate, shape attitudes to the world, books aimed at understanding human nature. This is the place for fiction. Yes, academic knowledge can also be obtained from such literature, but in any case it is not specifically aimed at this.�

    It was mentioned here that books are read “for entertainment in the first place.” In my opinion, this is the last thing a person should do – read for entertainment, or watch a movie “to kill time”. In any action that is performed, there must be a goal, and if you have read a book(or watched a movie) and did not learn something useful from it, or did not understand for yourself what this film is about, why I liked it or not, if you did not understand, then “congratulations, Sharik, you are a blockhead.” It's hard to think, but it's necessary. And just like that-the whole life will pass “just like that, for fun.”

  11. Any reading brings benefits, when reading, the left and right hemispheres of the brain actively interact through the corpus callosum, thus establishing “highways” between the hemispheres. The more a person reads, the faster and better these connections work, which has a positive effect on thought processes. Depending on what you read, you also develop critical thinking, imagination, flexibility of thinking, deduction, etc.

  12. I don't think we should talk about reading from a useful perspective.

    first of all, we read for fun.

    this applies to both fiction and popular science literature – in the second case, the pleasure of new information, establishing logical connections, etc.

    well, what is the use, for example, of an economist from reading a book on biology?

    so if you're not reading for fun, but in pursuit of some mythical “benefit,” maybe you should find something else to do.

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