A major debate today is whether fiction or non-fiction, especially in reading, is better. Better for you, better in general, but just better. The real answer is that fiction is the choice option; a must-have in our lives. G. K. Chestterton once said “Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.” Fiction strengthens the imagination and sense of the world, allows for a safe haven or retreat for the mind, increases learning, and allows a person to better understand and work with others.

When one is an avid fiction reader their imagination is often more developed than others, and they have a stronger sense of the world and how it should work.
By stimulating a world where antisocial behavior is strongly condemned and punished, these novels were promoting ancient human values. And from these books, and from fiction more broadly, readers learn by association that if they are more like the protagonists, they’ll be more likely to live happily ever after. (Gottschall)
When fiction uses the general good and bad rule, where the hero with values wins and the evil villain never sees his happily ever after, it adjusts that mindset into the brains of people who are avid fiction readers, causing them to believe in a just society. Fiction generally teaches the reader that is profitable to be good. This belief can eventually lead to a real, more virtuous world (Gottschall).

A good imagination can also be a safe haven or retreat spot for a tired mind, when a person is ready for a break.
Our main leisure activity is, by a long shot, participating in experiences that we know are not real. When we are free to do whatever we want, we retreat to the imagination – to worlds created by other, as with books, movies, video games, and television, or to worlds we ourselves create, as when daydreaming and fantasizing. (Bloom)
This place of imagination can take away our worries for a few minutes, a few hours, however long you need, and absorb us in their stories, capturing us for a time. With a well-developed imagination, the level by which you can enjoy a story through being thoroughly immersed also increases. “The emotions triggered by fiction are very real” (Bloom). “Our survey respondents reacted to the characters as though they were real people: They admired the protagonists, disliked the antagonists, felt happy when the good guys succeeded, and felt sad or angry when they were threatened” (Gottschall).

It is argued that real education can only come from facts, non-fiction, where everything is real and true. However, fiction provides a learning that non-fiction just can’t. By reading a book set in another country, a different culture, etc., you would learn more about the people in these places and their lifestyles.
If you were to read a novel that takes place in London toward the end of the 1980s, you would learn a lot about how people in that time and place talked to one another, what they ate, how they swore, and so on, because any decent storyteller has to include these truths as a backdrop for the story. (Bloom)

Just by being immersed in a story set in a different situation, a different place, a different time, a different culture, etc., you can learn how you would respond in a situation never encountered by you before. You also learn more about others and what their circumstances are, enabling you to get a better understanding of them, making yourself more than the “ignorant human”.

Fiction allows for the reader to gain a better understanding with others, making them capable of working well with people.
‘The emotional situations and moral dilemmas that are the stuff of literature are also vigorous exercise for the brain, propelling us inside the heads of fictional characters and even, studies suggest, increasing our real-life capacity for empathy’… (Haq)
These discoveries showed that avid fiction readers were more likely to work well with others, help others, and show empathy. “…fiction serves the function of ‘making the world a better place by improving interpersonal understanding’” (Gottschall). Fiction-readers are more able to understand the people around them. “I wanted to explore the possibility that fiction generally – not just folk tales – may act as a kind of social glue among humans, binding fractious individuals together around common values” (Gottschall). Fiction can shape humans for the better.

The battle has been long and hard fought, but in the end, fiction will always win. It makes for a better society through the making of better people. Well-developed imaginations, increased learning, understanding, and empathy for other people creates a race of people made better by the fiction they read. “…’it appears that ‘curling up with a good book’ may do more than provide relaxation and entertainment. Reading narrative fiction allows one to learn about our social world and as a result fosters empathic growth and prosocial behavior.’” (Gottschall) And plus, “…fictional people tend to be wittier and more clever than friends and family, and their adventures are usually much more interesting.” (Bloom)
“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” – Jessamyn West