There’s growing evidence to
support the idea that fiction books can be good or bad for you. It’s a drum I’ve
been beating on for a very long time.
I begin supporting my own
belief about this by going directly to Scripture: Brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or
praiseworthy—think about such things (Philippians 4:8).
Books, after all, cause us to
think of things. Whatever fills the pages ultimately fills our mind.
But this doesn’t mean that
books ought to be boring. I’m not interested in reading boring books—or publishing
them either!
This directive in Scripture shouldn’t
translate into fiction books that don’t capture our interest and don't take us on an
adventure.
I was invited on Catholic
television where I was asked to talk about the newest trend in YA fiction
(young adult fiction): the fastest growing audience of YA books is adults! This
is because adults love the adventure, characters and even intrigue found in a
cleverly crafted YA book—and they like the way they feel when they are done
reading it.
So I wasn’t surprised when I recently
read in the book Hildegard of Bingen’s
Medicine that “It is detrimental for the nerves if persons are always
reading new thrillers, or the newest bestsellers.” It goes on to say how the
nerves can, however, benefit from reading excellent books and even recommends
re-reading them.
I immediately thought of a
few amazing fiction books that I had planned on re-reading this fall and now
feel even more excited about doing so:
Of course, these are also the
reasons that we ought to immerse our tweens and teens in great fiction as well—and
these books are a perfect start!
