Take another look at fiction, HiLo and Teribus. For most of us, it is far more important for us to learn the culture, thinking, and life of an era. Nonfiction can go only so far in portraying these things in a way that affects people. For historical fiction to be credible, it must not betray the facts of the events within which the story is set.

Internet culture is obsessed with winning arguments, not with coming to understanding. Rather than accumulating facts and figures with which to win arguments, I want an understanding of how people felt about what was happening around them, and fiction can often convey that far better than nonfiction. I don't read to collect ammunition to win arguments. I read to come to understanding.

I wouldn't advise a steady diet of fiction, but I do think it has an important place. I suppose my fiction/nonfiction balance is about 50-50. That feels about right for me.

-Joe-