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Why Do We Read Fiction? It Could Be All About Mind Reading

First Posted: 06/01/10 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 05:00 PM ET

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The New York Times:

At a time when university literature departments are confronting painful budget cuts, a moribund job market and pointed scrutiny about the purpose and value of an education in the humanities, the cross-pollination of English and psychology is a providing a revitalizing lift.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

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NoSillyName
625 Fans
03:58 AM on 04/04/2010
I don't know. I prefer non-fiction.
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naschkatze
A free man creates himself.
2055 Fans
06:02 PM on 04/04/2010
Real life is extraordinarily interesting in its own right.
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NoSillyName
625 Fans
08:59 PM on 04/04/2010
I get enough of "real life" daily, don't want to read about it or see movies about it.
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Craig 212
Tide goes in, tide goes out.
863 Fans
 
11:34 PM on 04/03/2010
Because real life is boring!
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naschkatze
A free man creates himself.
2055 Fans
07:39 PM on 04/02/2010
I like fiction, but a steady diet of it is like a steady diet of sweets and desserts. I'm ready for some meat like Jared Diamond's Collapse.
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TheOuroborus
It's NOT paranoia if they really R out to get U.
539 Fans
02:27 PM on 04/01/2010
It's because our lives are fiction. There. Any other questions?
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pattio66
I'm here!!!
900 Fans
01:38 PM on 04/01/2010
Wow, I'm glad to be the first to comment here - I read fiction because it transports me to other worlds, it feeds my imagination, and it provides me insight into situations and people in the real world. I read non-fiction, too, but fiction provides an escape from the real drudgery of human existence.
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