Great literature is an axe to break the frozen sea inside us.

I had never been a student of literature; my fascination with the subject of literature started not very long ago. I will give full credit to my father who always stressed upon the need to read and gain knowledge and in turn wisdom that is necessary to spend life in a most meaningful way in this world. Though I had been reading since a very young age, but the books that I read were strictly non-fictional, mostly those were in the domain of self development, management, leadership and sometimes religion. I thought that fictions are waste of time since it is not the truth. My father was an ardent reader. Since my childhood I always found him with a book in his hand. On my visits to Jamshedpur, he would never forget to do a book recommendation for me. It would be a list of more than a dozen books including classics from Fyodor Dostoevsky, Victor Hugo, Jane Austin, history by a couple of renowned historians and one or two autobiographies. It wasn't that I did not want to read them. But certainly it needed time. Living in a metro with two growing up kids and having a demanding managerial position in a large IT company, one can imagine how much time one would get to read literature. For keeping me abreast of the latest technology and management my job itself demanded a lot of reading to be done. Therefore, the books recommended by my father were bought, but kept lying in the shelf to be read sometime in the future.

Over a period, things improved for me on a personal level. I resigned my regular job and started a business of our own. That had given me a lot of control on my time and I got a chance to pick up those books bought over a long period, but were still lying in my bookshelf unread. 

I would like to share my experience and my journey from someone who found fiction a waste of time to becoming a great fan of literary fiction. My earlier rational was, if I spent time on reading a book, I should get some result that helps me become more successful in life. I have always felt uncomfortable about any activity that does not lead to concrete results. And, the active daydream of reading fiction, I felt was idleness in its purest state, neither promising nor leading to any practical or concrete result. What I failed to realize was, literary fiction makes one more empathetic and it enhances emotional intelligence. Good fiction is the truth inside the lie. History only tells us the important events and what important personalities did in the past. History doesn't record common people's dreams, their imaginations, their daily problems and how they solved them. These are usually get documented by the authors of that age in their literary work. Reading history along with literature of any particular age gives you complete idea and the knowledge about that period. Literature introduces us to new worlds of experience and imagination. Well read people learn to see the big picture and usually they are fiercely pro-justice, unbiased and they are not superstitious.

Two recent studies have concluded that serious literary fiction makes people more empathetic. Or as Kafka puts it, "Great literature is an axe to break the frozen sea inside us.” 

Please let me know your thoughts.