Nonfiction Can Be “Escapist” Too

Some people who prefer fiction say they like it because it’s “escapist” and, with a good novel, they can lose themselves in the story.All well and good, but I’m here to tell you that some nonfiction can be escapist too.

Not all of it, of course. It’s hard to lose yourself in a how-to book, a parenting guide, or a motivational book. But some people actually find cookbooks to be escapist fare, as they read the luscious recipes and “”taste them” in their mind. By the same token, some people find gardening books escapist as they picture, in their mind’s eye, while reading, the way they plan to or would ideally like to arrange their gardens.

Then there are books on travel, or specific geographic locations, and nobody can tell me those aren’t escapist fare. And the same way readers escape into the lives of fictional characters in novels, other readers escape into the lives of real people in biographies. Do you like to read westerns? Read the life of Buffalo Bill Cody or Wyatt Earp. Do you like novels with strong female protagonists? Read a biography of one of the women suffragists of early in the last century—or Oprah Winfrey.

Do you like police procedurals or courtroom dramas? There is plenty of such fare on the nonfiction shelves, just as compelling to read and, to my mind, more fascinating simply because the story is one that really happened.

Don’t get me wrong. I am emphatically not putting the knock on fiction. I am merely pointing out that escapist reading matter doesn’t have to necessarily equate to fiction. There is plenty of escapism to be found in nonfiction as well.

So the next time you’re looking for a good book to get lost in, don’t confine your search to strictly the fiction shelves. There is plenty of escapism to be had in nonfiction as well!