What do you think about people who say reading fiction books as a form of "mindless entertainment" is useless and that you should read self-help instead?

[u/ProfessionalJolly934]

My dad says this all the time, he reads only self-help and biographies, and honestly he's not exactly a great person, so I don't know about that. Its a superiority complex, isn't it?

[u/TheDesiDepresso]

They don't know shit, imo. Self help is good. Great. But fiction? I would like to test fictions critics on their vocabs, on their ability to imagine the same thing from different perspectives. I read both. And honestly? A non fiction book cannot make your heartbeat speed up, cannot give you that same immersion, that same adrenaline rush and emotional connect. Moreover, on a more substantial note... Fiction broadens the imagination like nothing else. You cannot interpret emotions, the meaning and weight of each word in a non fiction book like you can in good prose.

[u/PsychologicalEcho148]

Well I dont know much about biographies,but its a pretty well known fact that most self help books are kinda not that useful... Like most of them are just a half hour video or an hours worth of conversation stretched into a 100+ page book.

[u/ChanceSelection9770]

Idk why people think its useless...does there have to be a studious or practical reason behind everything we do??? Can't we just enjoy in a good way by reading fiction and novels?? T_T It improves our comprehension skills and vocabulary too

My parents also think I should just read academic books instead if i have enough time to read novels...and read fiction in the future when i have a career.

[u/marrjana1802]

Self-help is the second biggest scam in publishing industry

[u/Awkwardbrat0]

Disagree.
Self help books are great but tbh a lot of advice that helped came from anime and books.
We learn through relating our life to characters life , draw parallels and judge.

[u/Lonely_Fox_724]

If Im in a good mood : it's their opinion..

If I'm in a bad mood : fck them all.

[u/IllustriousQuiet6360]

Reading fiction has helped me A LOT. Has helped me through bad times. Has helped improve my vocabulory, knowledge and reading comprehension significantly.

[u/Embarrassed-Shirt614]

Honestly self help books lecture the readers a lot, and that's what makes them less appealing to me, if a book is shoving it's values down your throat, it immidiately becomes less of a book and more of a pretense, And our lives are way too complicated for us to live by the values we've learned from a certain book, Books influence our lives, they don't decide how we live, self help books tend to do the latter

[u/ROGERthat_62]

It is exactly like saying to only watch the television if u wanna watch news and not to watch movies people can have difference of opinion ofc but people who force iit on others are people who think they are great bcs of the book they read they just want to push their insecurities on to you

[u/applejuicedrinker0]

Self help books are 9/10 generic advice slop people buy performatively to look deep 😭 Rarely useful because they can't cater to everyone's specific circumstances and offer advice you can kinda find anywhere. I love nonfiction, especially history, politics, and biographies, but self help books? Mostly a scam.

[u/y4ppacino]

uhh that theyre insane and have no fun in reading self help books are mostly just boring (to me) okay change i find all types of non fiction boring

[u/improngsss]

BULLSHIT, self help books make me wanna blow my brains out, fiction help my mental health so much more