I forgot how nice it was to read fiction.

This morning, about 10 minutes before my online Summer School class started, I received a huge package from Booktopia (an Australian online bookstore with the best book discounts). In it were five books of varying sizes. Curious by the small size of it, I picked up the Reluctant Fundamentalist - which could fit in a decently sized pocket - and started reading.

10 minutes into reading, I jumped onto my Zoom class (they take attendance), muted my lecturer and continued reading.

I was entranced by the writing style and the themes touched on immediately; the main character addresses you, and invites you the reader to listen to his story, which immediately dives into cultural identity and pride, exploration into the idea of belonging and best of all, a mention of generalist corporate jobs fuelled by current-day capitalism.

Why I Love Fiction

There's an artistry in fiction that truly transports me into another world.

It places you in someone else's perspectives and takes you on a journey. It explores hard truths and topics without feeling too overwhelming. It can even make you, the reader, empathise about something that you've personally never felt or experienced before.

Most importantly, fiction doesn't tell you what to feel, or what to do. You seek out the lessons that you yourself want to learn, instead of being told exactly what you should be learning. It's much more subtle compared to it's straight-shooting sister, non-fiction.

For the past few years I've been more inclined to read non-fiction, in order to learn about facts, insights, real stories and theories more quickly and build up my knowledge base. But every once in a while I'll read a great fiction book and be reminded about how much I do prefer fiction over non-fiction.

My first few books of 2022

To those interested, I got a mix of fiction and non-fiction:

1. Humankind by Rutger Bregman

2. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

3. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

4. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

5. A New History of Western Philosophy by Anthony Kenny