Lisa notes

If you’re a reader, you probably have a favorite: fiction or nonfiction. Some of us love escaping into stories; others seek facts and insights.

But what if real understanding happens when you don’t choose between them, but read both?

Reading fiction and nonfiction together can deepen your perspective of both worlds. One stirs emotion; the other sharpens perspective.

Below are a few reasons why this pairing works for me—and three book pairings from what I’ve read this year.

1. Fiction Opens Your Heart; Nonfiction Opens Your Mind

Okay, maybe it’s not quite that simple (fiction and nonfiction can both open hearts and minds). Still, books we read for stories often help us feel something, while books we read for information often help us think something.

Try these two together.

Fiction: Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

The plot centers around a mysterious passenger aboard a flight who walks down the aisle predicting deaths. The story shows you the human side of how each person reacts to the news, and the ripple effect it creates in their lives.

Nonfiction: Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters by Brian Klaas

This fascinating look at chaos theory and randomness shows how tiny moments can have huge consequences. It’s a real-life counterpart to Moriarty’s fictional story of ripple effects.

The fiction and nonfiction together help you feel the fragility of life as well as understand why even small choices matter.

2. Together, They Give You a More Complete Picture

Fiction fleshes out a concept without having to explain it. You see it for yourself as it unfolds in a story. With nonfiction you get a full explanation with details and facts and often even possible solutions.

Fiction: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Set in the early 1900s, this classic novel follows Celie, an African American woman, as she navigates trauma, resilience, and self-discovery in the American South.

Nonfiction: We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite by Musa al-Gharbi

This well-researched book is a thought-provoking look at how modern social justice movements intersect with class, culture, and power structures.

Read together, these two books offer a clearer picture of both historical and modern struggles over identity, race, and progress.

3. When Nonfiction Gets Heavy, Fiction Offers an Escape

Honestly, sometimes nonfiction can feel like homework, especially when the topics are intense or the science is dense. That’s where fiction provides a welcome release. Having both genres in your stack lets you match your reading mood.

Fiction: There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

This sweeping novel sucks you in over several centuries and continents, connecting four people linked by water, memory, and the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh.

Nonfiction: Returning Home to Our Bodies by Abigail Rose Clarke

This book invites self-reflection as you reconnect with their own body as part of nature—through somatics, social awareness, and imagination.

When you’re ready to go deep, pick up the nonfiction. But when you need to come up for air, reach for the novel.

The Best of Both Worlds

Pairing genres can keep your reading life fresh. Switching back and forth between fiction and nonfiction keeps your brain active and your heart engaged. It doesn’t have to be either/or.

When you need a change of pace, try adding some of both to your stack.

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Share your thoughts in the comments.

More pairings here:

• The Power of Pairing Fiction and Nonfiction Books – 2024
• What Nonfiction and Fiction Books Go Well Together? – 2023
• Pair Your Nonfiction and Fiction Books – 2022

It’s Week 3 of Nonfiction November: Book Pairings. Find more pairings (and add your own) at Liz’s blog, Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home.

Week 2 of Nonfiction November is about Choosing Nonfiction. Here are a couple questions I often ask when I decide on a nonfiction book:

• Can I do something with this book besides just read it?
• How can I experience this for myself, too?

(Disclaimer: I also love novels! But I read them for escape, for fun, and for entertainment. If it turns out to prompt action, too, well, that’s just bonus.)

5 Reasons to Do a Book Instead of Just Reading It

Here are 5 reasons why I find doing a book to be beneficial—and a book suggestion for each.

1. YOU UNDERSTAND BETTER WHEN YOU PRACTICE.

Reading about something is one thing. Doing it is another. To get better at basketball, for example, you don’t just read about plays and strategies; you pick up a ball and play.

“Doing” a book works the same way to me. Answer the journal prompts. Try the exercises. Experience the game, when possible.

My book club recently finished Priya Parker’s book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters.

But instead of only reading it, we are trying to individually experiment with Parker’s ideas in our own gatherings. It’s been interesting to try new strategies in how we meet with others.

2. YOU DISCOVER BLIND SPOTS.

My friend showed me how to do something. It looked easy. Until I tried it myself. Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know until you actually try it yourself.

Here’s a book that is perfect for this if you want to discover your blind spots: Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World by Scott Shigeoka.

While reading about curiosity is one form of practicing curiosity, it’s more beneficial if you take the material outside the book to see where you can improve.

Shigeoka suggests practical tips, like acknowledge small bids for attention, take a “brave pause,” or ask yourself key questions before taking action.

While we want to learn from others’ mistakes, the strongest lessons still come when we experience our own.

3. DOING MAKES IT STICK.

We retain what we do longer than what we simply read. Books that get us out of our heads and into our bodies make knowledge stick around better.

This book did it for me: Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives by Sami Sage and Emily Amick.

Some of its practical suggestions include:

• Audit your news consumption
• Create a civic calendar
• Show up at local events
• Join a nonprofit
• Call your representatives
• Celebrate small wins

At the book’s prompting, I finally downloaded the Five Calls app for calling Congress, and now I use it to keep up with my calls to representatives instead of starting every time from scratch.

4. DOING BUILDS CONFIDENCE.

This summer when I realized I was on my phone too often, I read this book for strategies: How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life by Catherine Price.

In it, she instructs the reader to actually pull out their phone and do things like this:

• Set a digital Sabbath
• Assign a bedtime and wake-up time for your phone
• Establish no-phone zones in your home
• Unsubscribe instead of just delete unwanted emails

These are all actions I can do (well, some of the time anyway?), thus building my confidence (a little) that I can control my phone instead of my phone controlling me. This one is still a work in progress for me….

5. DOING TURNS KNOWLEDGE INTO WISDOM.

After watching the encouraging reels by James ‘Fish’ Gill on Instagram, I grabbed a copy of his book about relationships: How to Fall in Love with Humanity: 16 Life-Changing Practices for Radical Compassion. And I’m so glad I did.

His insightful advice can improve relationships—but only if they’re practiced.

Here are some examples from his book, things you may already know but good reminders to practice them:

• Share your experience, not your analysis
• Listen to understand, not just to respond
• Ask questions with curiosity, not assumption
• Witness both the yearnings and the pains of others

Learning is rarely one-and-done. It takes time and repetition to go from head-knowledge to heart-wisdom. 

The Takeaway

Books aren’t only for your thinking—they’re also for your living.

The best nonfiction doesn’t just inform. It challenges you to act.

So read a book, then do it, and watch for the changes that follow.

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Which book have you read recently that you could put into practice? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Read more about reading:

• 5 Ways to Get More From Reading Nonfiction Books
  Don’t just read a book. Do the book. See 5 ways to get more from reading nonfiction books.
• Read What Matters Most
  Explore 5 inspiring nonfiction books on productivity and aging to help you use your time wisely, live intentionally, and read what matters most to you.
• Can a Book Make You Do Something?
  It’s easy to read and forget. But instead, what if we read and do? Can a book inspire you to do something?

Find more posts on choosing nonfiction books at Frances’s blog, Volatile Rune, for week 2 of Nonfiction November.