I couldn’t agree more. I think it’s important to read both its just that I have only recently got into non fiction. I do love the Ah ha moment in fiction too though when you suddenly get the twist in the story. Nothing better.

What kinds of non fiction do you read?

Nothing beats that “ah-ha” moment in non-fiction when different concepts come together in your mind and suddenly you get it. It feels like your opening doors in your mind.

Thanks for commenting Mandy 🙂 funnily enough I just replied to your email today! I know what you mean about being in the right mindset. I also have to be careful about reading my genre when I am in ‘doer’ mode. I adore my MBTI textbook – its not that big, but its just so useful, Its always either on my work desk or in my reference collection. I can’t wait for your MBTI series 🙂 I also hadn’t thought about that kind of reading as non fiction. I guess I read more of it than I thought, as I do a lot of research online, but that had completely slipped my mind as counting as reading. Hope your well 🙂

When I’m in that mindset, it’s tough to relax long enough to achieve that relaxed, receptive state I need to be in to enjoy fiction. I have the MBTI textbook on my desk for that MBTI character design project. I read books on building fiction-writing skills. Sometimes before bed the past few weeks I’ve ready Anaïs Nin’s volume one diary. Which is kind of like a story and kind of isn’t. And I read a lot of skills building for bloggers articles online too.

By the way, I like that you’re doing a series on reading like a writer. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

First one that comes to mind is usually a winner. Not read it but now I shall put it on my ‘has been recommended’ list 🙂

Clearly i need to get further into your book then to discover all these delights! Sigh, I wish I didnt have to sleep! I would be so much more productive! I have a book list as long as my arm, blog posts backing up half a novel to edit before I can continue (decided I had to go back and edit for my sanity) and an assignment due (how did you finish your writers bureau course so fast?)

My ‘to-read’ list contains a lot of non-fiction – books I have placed on my Kindle. At present, I’m only managing to read for an hour or so before bed, and I’m reading kind-of-in-genre fiction mostly. I have been spending a lot of time researching for The Orphans and Knight & Deigh (I knew nothing about scuba-diving, sky-diving, court proceedings in Tanzania and Hawaii, AIDS research, peak oil, disability issues…)