{"id":55,"date":"2016-12-12T05:30:19","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T05:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chicprose.1203agency.com\/?p=55"},"modified":"2020-05-11T00:49:37","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T00:49:37","slug":"4-surprising-cognitive-benefits-of-reading-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidebelle.com\/2016\/12\/12\/4-surprising-cognitive-benefits-of-reading-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"4 SURPRISING COGNITIVE BENEFITS OF READING FICTION"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"graf--p\">Who still reads literary fiction nowadays? I do and I consider myself a part of the ever declining percentage of fiction readers in 2015.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">In a modern world flooded with tech goodies and advices on how to build a startup, a lot of people think that reading fiction is a huge waste of time. Some readers would even prefer non-fiction books that they believe can enrich their intellectual capacity. Well, everyone is entitled to his\/her own opinion. I totally understand how practical people often shun fiction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">However, recent studies have shown that those who constantly spend hours absorbing someone\u2019s flight of imagination scored significantly better than those who read factual literature. The tests were used to measure empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">In my case, I read not only because I want to immerse myself in another person\u2019s world, but I also want to learn how a writer with great calibre writes. While I don\u2019t really call my love for literary fiction as an addiction, I just can\u2019t seem to trade a novel with a fancy outfit. It turns out I\u2019m making the right choice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">Here are some cognitive benefits you can reap by reading other people\u2019s figment of imagination.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"graf--h4\">ENHANCES SOCIAL PERCEPTION AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-129\" style=\"box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;\" src=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" data-attachment-id=\"129\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/inkypress.wordpress.com\/2016\/08\/31\/126-revision-v1\/\" data-orig-file=\"\" data-orig-size=\"\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"[]\" data-image-title=\"GONE GIRL BY GILLIAN FLYNN (REVIEW)\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Title:&lt;\/strong&gt; Gone Girl&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Author:&lt;\/strong&gt; Gillian Flynn&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;ISBN:&lt;\/strong&gt; 978-0307588364&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Published:&lt;\/strong&gt; June 2012, Crown Publishing Group&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Target Audience:&lt;\/strong&gt; Adult&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Genre:&lt;\/strong&gt; Mystery, Thriller&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The fact that I bought a paperback copy of Gone Girl after reading its ebook version is really a testament that the novel should be one to go in the treasure chest. Gone Girl is the first Gillian Flynn book I have read a year ago, and after that I have been wanting for more. I don\u2019t know how to start this; the book is so twisted I am lost for words. Having read all of Flynn\u2019s books, I could say that Gone Girl is her best yet, probably a magnum opus, and definitely the best psychological thriller in the contemporary scene so far.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Gone Girl possesses the familiar Gillian Flynn power that\u2019s going to chill readers to the bones. And why not? It is so unsettling and cynical that you would begin to wonder if the ones you love are those you think they really are. Once you turn the first page and read what Nick Dunne thinks of his wife\u2019s head, you are in a creepy, thrilling ride of your life.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SYNOPSIS&lt;\/strong&gt;&lt;\/h2&gt; &lt;figure id=&quot;attachment_168&quot; class=&quot;wp-caption alignnone&quot;&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;wp-image-168&quot; src=&quot;http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dp5xd8woh\/image\/upload\/v1461487515\/Gone_Girl_myxpff.jpg&quot; width=&quot;1280&quot; height=&quot;850&quot; \/&gt;&lt;figcaption class=&quot;wp-caption-text&quot;&gt;Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, the primary suspect of Amy Dunne\u2019s disappearance and apparent murder.&lt;\/figcaption&gt;&lt;\/figure&gt; &lt;p&gt;The gripping story revolves around the troubled marriage of Nick and Amy Dunne, two New York journalists who ended up living in Nick\u2019s depressing hometown North Carthage after losing their writing jobs. Amy, who has been raised pampered and trust-funded as a Manhattan socialite, detests their ordeal, much more their rented McMansion that Nick chose for them to live in. Even so, Nick still managed to open a bar with his twin sister Margo using Amy\u2019s trust fund money.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Everything becomes hellish on the day of the couple\u2019s fifth year anniversary when Amy suddenly turns missing with traces of murder found in their McMansion kitchen. Nick, who came home after a quick beach stroll early that morning, finds himself in the middle of a murder accusation. All pieces of evidence lead back to him, including Amy\u2019s diary that Nick wasn\u2019t aware his wife had all the time.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The plot then progresses as Nick tries to clear his name and win the public\u2019s heart. But Nick turns out to be a poor liar, who lives a double life and pretends that everything is fine throughout their marriage. Suddenly, a series of twists and turns starts to prevail and there seems to be no way of telling who is really saying the truth. Is Amy really murdered? Does Nick have something to do with it? What\u2019s really the motive of the New York sweetheart\u2019s sudden disappearance?&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ANALYSIS&lt;\/strong&gt;&lt;\/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;Nick and Amy Dunne are not your stereotypical troubled couple. Yes, they might appear as one at first, but there\u2019s more to them than meets the eye. And that\u2019s how Gillian Flynn crafted two deep, complex main characters in this chilling third novel. As readers are thrown back and forth between Nick\u2019s narrative and Amy\u2019s diary entries prior to her disappearance, I was led to believe on things that might really have not happened after all. Something happens and everything I knew changes in just a flash. They are the perfect definition of unreliable narrators, something that Gillian Flynn has apparently mastered and applied to her excruciatingly twisted protagonists\u2019 inner monologues.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If Agatha Christie were alive, Gillian Flynn would have given Agatha a run for her money. But of course, Agatha is Agatha, and Gillian has her own way of presenting her narrative. What makes Gone Girl and her other books so dangerous and delicious to read is her tense prose, written through her irresistible, razor sharp wit. She\u2019s a good architect when it comes to shaping the entirety of her story, shepherding us to the unpredictability of its dark corners. There are a good many crime writers out there, but not one has come close to Gillian\u2019s style of writing. She sure doesn\u2019t disappoint when it comes to presenting the savage and toxic side of the human psyche.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you ever decide to jump in the bandwagon of Gone Girl fanatics, I recommend that you read the book when you are not alone because it\u2019s going to scare you in more ways than one. But I assure you, while the fright lingers inside you, there\u2019s going to be no intention on your side to put it down.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rating:\u00a0&lt;img class=&quot;alignnone wp-image-167&quot; src=&quot;http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dp5xd8woh\/image\/upload\/v1461487461\/5stars_ba1tke.png&quot; width=&quot;93&quot; height=&quot;17&quot; \/&gt;&lt;\/strong&gt;&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;\u201cThere\u2019s something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold.\u201d&lt;\/em&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;\/blockquote&gt; \" data-medium-file=\"\" data-large-file=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">A <a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/342\/6156\/377.abstract\">study <\/a>published in the journal Science concluded that people who read literary fiction, as opposed to pop fiction, performed better on tests measuring empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence- skills that are greatly beneficial when trying to gauge someone\u2019s thinking or body language.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">The reason, as researches say, is that literary fiction often leaves more to the imagination. It can generate immediate effects in terms of how we understand other\u2019s mental states. It has more to do with the \u201ctheory of mind\u201d, which is a term for a person\u2019s ability to accumulate exact insight into the motivations and emotions of others.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"graf--h4\">IMPROVES YOUR EMPATHY<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-130\" style=\"box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidebelle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/moana-on-island-disney.jpg?resize=1140%2C671&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"1140\" height=\"671\" data-attachment-id=\"130\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/inkypress.wordpress.com\/2016\/09\/02\/dark-places-by-gillian-flynn-review\/\" data-orig-file=\"\" data-orig-size=\"\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"[]\" data-image-title=\"DARK PLACES BY GILLIAN FLYNN (REVIEW)\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Title:&lt;\/strong&gt; Dark Places&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Author:&lt;\/strong&gt; Gillian Flynn&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;ISBN:&lt;\/strong&gt; 249137284&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Published:&lt;\/strong&gt; May 5, 2009, Shaye Areheart Books&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Target Audience:&lt;\/strong&gt; Adult&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Genre:&lt;\/strong&gt; Mystery, Thriller&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I found myself asking if Gillian Flynn is mad herself or just overly brilliant. What with Dark Places, it takes a stable mind to soak in every damning and morbid detail of Libby Day\u2019s life. Flynn\u2019s ingenuity in her writing is obvious, though one might think that no normal person could write something as utterly disturbing and gruesome as her second novel. I can say that the genius of her debut novel Sharp Objects was no fluke in any way.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Like her other two bestselling books Sharp Objects and Gone Girl, Dark Places contains the familiar acerbic, self-loathing, and sinister characters that readers would both love and hate at the same time. And for something like that to evoke such powerful emotions is rather an accomplishment.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SYNOPSIS&lt;\/strong&gt;&lt;\/h2&gt; &lt;figure id=&quot;attachment_173&quot; class=&quot;wp-caption alignnone&quot;&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;wp-image-173&quot; src=&quot;http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dp5xd8woh\/image\/upload\/v1461488102\/Dark_Places_movie_nvn8n7.jpg&quot; width=&quot;652&quot; height=&quot;408&quot; \/&gt;&lt;figcaption class=&quot;wp-caption-text&quot;&gt;Charlize Theron plays as Libby Day in the movie adaptation of Dark Places.&lt;\/figcaption&gt;&lt;\/figure&gt; &lt;p&gt;Dark Places begins with Libby Day, who at the age of seven found herself hiding inside her mother\u2019s closet after she witnessed the grisly massacre of her well-meaning mother, Patty and two older sisters in their poverty-stricken farmhouse in Kinnakee, Kansas. The one who took the axe and brought it upon the Day family was Ben Day, Libby\u2019s troubled, teenage brother. With Libby pointing Ben as the killer, her brother was convicted of the murder.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Decades passed and now that Ben is locked away for his crimes, Libby is having trouble with her finances. The fund that the well-wishers raised for her after the murders is running out. Broke and alone, with no clear vision of what would become of her, Libby is desperate enough to accept an offering by the Kill Club, an odd group of people obsessed with the macabre. Libby plans to milk the club by returning to her past and reaching out to the people who were part of the case.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As Libby journeys to her bleak, shabby childhood town Kinnakee and to other old places that sit in squalor, the narrative abruptly changes through the perspective of Libby\u2019s family- including Ben, Patty, and then back to Libby. As she eagerly tries to piece everything together and prove to the Kill Club that her brother was indeed the killer, Libby finds herself, yet again, running away from death\u2019s clutches.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ANALYSIS&lt;\/strong&gt;&lt;\/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;There\u2019s no way I could have liked Libby or the other characters of the book. Each has their own quirks and flaws, which made every one of them hard to like. But here\u2019s Libby Day- selfish, envious, and hateful Libby- and her once socially-awkward and troubled brother Ben, both you would have a hard time to empathize with but you surprisingly would root for. It won\u2019t even be a big deal by then that you disliked the characters as every page turns grimmer than the previous.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It\u2019s an absolutely thought-provoking, pitch-black book to read as it bares the evil side of humanity. I guarantee that you would find it difficult to put the book down, even if you have to sacrifice your sleep. Okay, it\u2019s a bit exaggerated but that\u2019s how Dark Places affected me. The only thing that surprised me a bit was the final revelation, which although I haven\u2019t seen coming, didn\u2019t quite sit on my expectations well. You would know for sure once you flip that dreaded page.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The title of the book is somewhat Meta, owing to the fact that once you open its eerie cover you are taken in a very dark place that\u2019s frightening to the point of paranoia. The unsettling plot might make a person shove it away once the ghastly events start to creep up, but Gillian Flynn wrote it with such mastery that even the most repulsive and nerve-fraying episodes were poetically-written to devour hungrily. Once you start nibbling Flynn\u2019s silken prose, you would want to spit it out and eat it back again, savouring the pungent and other times copper taste of her words in your mouth. With that said, Gillian Flynn has truly stamped herself as the mistress of crime fiction.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rating:&lt;\/strong&gt;\u00a0&lt;img class=&quot;alignnone wp-image-178&quot; src=&quot;http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dp5xd8woh\/image\/upload\/v1461486536\/4stars_xpuh54.png&quot; width=&quot;93&quot; height=&quot;17&quot; \/&gt;&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;\u201cI felt something loosen in me, that shouldn\u2019t have loosened. A stitch come undone.\u201d&lt;\/em&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;\/blockquote&gt; \" data-medium-file=\"\" data-large-file=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">Regardless of the studies conducted, most of us would probably agree that this effect from reading is true. After all, when we read fiction, we are placing ourselves in the shoes of other people. Nonetheless, our assumptions were proven right and this is really not new to us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">A <a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.degruyter.com\/view\/j\/comm.2009.34.issue-4\/comm.2009.025\/comm.2009.025.xml\">2009 study <\/a>by Raymond Mar and Keith Oatley showed that the participants who had a lifetime exposure to fiction \u201chave better abilities of empathy and\u00a0<a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.degruyter.com\/view\/j\/comm.2009.34.issue-4\/comm.2009.025\/comm.2009.025.xml\">theory of mind<\/a>\u201d than their non-fiction counterparts. The study further proved that empathetic individuals tend to read a lot of fiction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">Sensitive and lengthy explorations of complex lives can lead to more empathy and understanding of other lives. Research has also shown that fiction can help change societal values; it molds us as we drop our intellectual guard and absorb ourselves in a story.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"graf--h4\">ALLOWS GREATER CREATIVITY<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-131\" src=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"1024\" data-attachment-id=\"131\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/inkypress.wordpress.com\/2016\/09\/02\/dark-places-by-gillian-flynn-review\/dark-places-book-cover-805x604\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/inkypress.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/08\/dark-places-book-cover-805x604.png\" data-orig-size=\"805,604\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Dark-Places-book-cover-805\u00d7604\" data-image-description=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/inkypress.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/08\/dark-places-book-cover-805x604.png?w=300\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/inkypress.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/08\/dark-places-book-cover-805x604.png?w=720\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">Fictional literature offers someone\u2019s creativity to be enjoyed. It also makes an individual more comfortable with ambiguity. This allows for a higher level of thinking and creativity. Also, another benefit of reading fiction is that it can take you anywhere and it doesn\u2019t really follow a set of rules existing in the real world. The author\u2019s imagination is the only limit to where the story can go. Isn\u2019t it amazing that you or the author can create something out of nothing?<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">Reading fiction allows you to imagine a different plane of existence. You get your mind to picture out the sceneries exquisitely described in the book, or the sound, or the emotions that powerfully engulfed the characters. You get to experience some things that the real world doesn\u2019t allow for us to experience, like flying or travelling light years away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">We also get to choose the closure of some stories that don\u2019t have clear resolutions, which can either be a frustration or a delight in our part. Sometimes we let the ending as what it is, like we don\u2019t really have the need to close it and instead leave it in ambiguity.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"graf--h4\">HELPS EXPLORE ABSTRACT HUMAN EXPERIENCES<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-132\" style=\"box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;\" src=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" data-attachment-id=\"132\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/inkypress.wordpress.com\/2016\/08\/31\/130-revision-v1\/\" data-orig-file=\"\" data-orig-size=\"\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"[]\" data-image-title=\"DARK PLACES BY GILLIAN FLYNN (REVIEW)\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Title:&lt;\/strong&gt; Dark Places&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Author:&lt;\/strong&gt; Gillian Flynn&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;ISBN:&lt;\/strong&gt; 249137284&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Published:&lt;\/strong&gt; May 5, 2009, Shaye Areheart Books&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Target Audience:&lt;\/strong&gt; Adult&lt;br \/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Genre:&lt;\/strong&gt; Mystery, Thriller&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I found myself asking if Gillian Flynn is mad herself or just overly brilliant. What with Dark Places, it takes a stable mind to soak in every damning and morbid detail of Libby Day\u2019s life. Flynn\u2019s ingenuity in her writing is obvious, though one might think that no normal person could write something as utterly disturbing and gruesome as her second novel. I can say that the genius of her debut novel Sharp Objects was no fluke in any way.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Like her other two bestselling books Sharp Objects and Gone Girl, Dark Places contains the familiar acerbic, self-loathing, and sinister characters that readers would both love and hate at the same time. And for something like that to evoke such powerful emotions is rather an accomplishment.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SYNOPSIS&lt;\/strong&gt;&lt;\/h2&gt; &lt;figure id=&quot;attachment_173&quot; class=&quot;wp-caption alignnone&quot;&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;wp-image-173&quot; src=&quot;http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dp5xd8woh\/image\/upload\/v1461488102\/Dark_Places_movie_nvn8n7.jpg&quot; width=&quot;652&quot; height=&quot;408&quot; \/&gt;&lt;figcaption class=&quot;wp-caption-text&quot;&gt;Charlize Theron plays as Libby Day in the movie adaptation of Dark Places.&lt;\/figcaption&gt;&lt;\/figure&gt; &lt;p&gt;Dark Places begins with Libby Day, who at the age of seven found herself hiding inside her mother\u2019s closet after she witnessed the grisly massacre of her well-meaning mother Patty and two older sisters in their poverty-stricken farmhouse in Kinnakee, Kansas. The one who took the axe and brought it upon the Day family was Ben Day, Libby\u2019s troubled, teenage brother. With Libby pointing Ben as the killer, her brother was convicted of the murder.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Decades passed and now that Ben is locked away for his crimes, Libby is having trouble with her finances. The fund that the well-wishers raised for her after the murders is running out. Broke and alone, with no clear vision of what would become of her, Libby is desperate enough to accept an offering by the Kill Club, an odd group of people obsessed with the macabre. Libby plans to milk the club by returning to her past and reaching out to the people who were part of the case.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As Libby journeys to her bleak, shabby childhood town Kinnakee and to other old places that sit in squalor, the narrative abruptly changes through the perspective of Libby\u2019s family- including Ben, Patty, and then back to Libby. As she eagerly tries to piece everything together and prove to the Kill Club that her brother was indeed the killer, Libby finds herself, yet again, running away from death\u2019s clutches.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ANALYSIS&lt;\/strong&gt;&lt;\/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;There\u2019s no way I could have liked Libby or the other characters of the book. Each has their own quirks and flaws, which made every one of them hard to like. But here\u2019s Libby Day- selfish, envious, and hateful Libby- and her once socially-awkward and troubled brother Ben, both you would have a hard time to empathize with but you surprisingly would root for. It won\u2019t even be a big deal by then that you disliked the characters as every page turns grimmer than the previous.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It\u2019s an absolutely thought-provoking, pitch-black book to read as it bares the evil side of humanity. I guarantee that you would find it difficult to put the book down, even if you have to sacrifice your sleep. Okay, it\u2019s a bit exaggerated but that\u2019s how Dark Places affected me. The only thing that surprised me a bit was the final revelation, which although I haven\u2019t seen coming, didn\u2019t quite sit on my expectations well. You would know for sure once you flip that dreaded page.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The title of the book is somewhat Meta, owing to the fact that once you open its eerie cover you are taken in a very dark place that\u2019s frightening to the point of paranoia. The unsettling plot might make a person shove it away once the ghastly events start to creep up, but Gillian Flynn wrote it with such mastery that even the most repulsive and nerve-fraying episodes were poetically-written to devour hungrily. Once you start nibbling Flynn\u2019s silken prose, you would want to spit it out and eat it back again, savouring the pungent and other times copper taste of her words in your mouth. With that said, Gillian Flynn has truly stamped herself as the mistress of crime fiction.&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rating:&lt;\/strong&gt;\u00a0&lt;img class=&quot;alignnone wp-image-178&quot; src=&quot;http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dp5xd8woh\/image\/upload\/v1461486536\/4stars_xpuh54.png&quot; width=&quot;93&quot; height=&quot;17&quot; \/&gt;&lt;\/p&gt; &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;\u201cI felt something loosen in me, that shouldn\u2019t have loosened. A stitch come undone.\u201d&lt;\/em&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;\/blockquote&gt; \" data-medium-file=\"\" data-large-file=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">Some of us only have a superficial understanding of the abstract human experiences and philosophical concepts, such as love, hate, goodness, and evil. By reading fiction, we get to share similar experiences, cultures, and perspectives with other people around the globe at a meaningful level.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">Great authors have the power to probe the human condition by weaving extraordinary stories that tap into the soul of human experience. Readers are always led to believe into something that doesn\u2019t even exist or haven\u2019t had happened. We gain the chance to ponder on issues that may potentially disrupt societies- take for example To Kill a Mockingbird or 1984.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">The stories are may be invented, but they sometimes appear truer than non-fiction. We can identify with the experiences of the characters as we take time to reflect and associate the story with our lives. We are more inclined to see narratives where there are none because it can give meaning to our lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p\">Although reading fiction doesn\u2019t always have extraordinary benefits, its existence enables us to expand our views of the world and exposes us to realms, people, and ideas that are new to us. However, the cognitive benefits of reading shouldn\u2019t be made as your primary reason to start reading fiction- although it helps to motivate you anyway. Read fiction because you want to develop your imagination, support the long-standing art of storytelling, and welcome the lives of others into yours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who still reads literary fiction nowadays? I do and I consider myself a part of the ever declining percentage of fiction readers in 2015. In a modern world flooded with tech goodies and advices on how to build a startup, a lot of people think that reading fiction is a huge waste of time. Some readers would even prefer non-fiction books that they believe can enrich their intellectual capacity. Well, everyone is entitled to his\/her own opinion. I totally understand how practical people often shun fiction. However, recent studies have shown that those who constantly spend hours absorbing someone\u2019s flight of imagination scored significantly better than those who read factual literature. The tests were used to measure empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence. In my case, I read not only because I want to immerse [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[20,22,25,26,14,27],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>4 SURPRISING COGNITIVE BENEFITS OF READING FICTION - Southside Belle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.southsidebelle.com\/2016\/12\/12\/4-surprising-cognitive-benefits-of-reading-fiction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 SURPRISING COGNITIVE BENEFITS OF READING FICTION - Southside Belle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Who still reads literary fiction nowadays? I do and I consider myself a part of the ever declining percentage of fiction readers in 2015. In a modern world flooded with tech goodies and advices on how to build a startup, a lot of people think that reading fiction is a huge waste of time. Some readers would even prefer non-fiction books that they believe can enrich their intellectual capacity. Well, everyone is entitled to his\/her own opinion. I totally understand how practical people often shun fiction. However, recent studies have shown that those who constantly spend hours absorbing someone\u2019s flight of imagination scored significantly better than those who read factual literature. The tests were used to measure empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence. 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