The Nonfiction Blog, part 3 (aka, Becca whipping nonfiction's behind)

Thanks commenter for suggesting The Heavenly Man. I'll have to steal it off Meghan's shelf sometime. But if you'll forgive me, I have a bone to pick with Meghan.

I notice Tozer didn't say "the function of a NONfiction book is..." No such specification. So try again.

And if we're gonna play a dead-people quotes game, you've come to the right place, sister. I can throw around plenty of quotes. Even from alive people.

Quotes from Dead People=

“A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.” -C.S. Lewis

and

"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become." - C.S. Lewis

I don't really know what that means, but a lot of people think that if C.S. Lewis says something, it's true, so I win.

Quotes from Alive people=
There's this dude named Chuck Colson who's on KTIS. And if something is on KTIS, everybody KNOWS it's true. And HE says (he didn't actually write this, but close enough. It's an article on his website by one of my favorite authors Mary DeMuth, and you can go there to read the nonfictiony words under the subheads if you really must) there are ten good reasons for Christ-followers to read fiction. And these are them:

1. Our view of the world beyond our door widens.
2. We learn empathy as we walk in a character’s different-sized shoes.
3. God uses stories to heal.
4. Fiction unmasks us.
5. God’s redemptive story permeates.
6. Novels allow for paradox, causing us to ask the kinds of questions that help us search for God.
7. Reading novels critically helps us navigate the Scriptures better.
8. Reading a novel connects us to the Creator
9. Reading a novel builds community.
10. Reading stories brings us face to face with Jesus, the grand storyteller.

Mary also says...

"Our hearts are typically instructed through story, not bullet points. I’ve never experienced healing or salvation from a list. But people telling their stories and reading others’ stories in literature stay with me, move through my heart, and open an unexpected door for Jesus to heal me."

I win.

(Actually, I thought about just going, "I'll give you five good reasons," [that fiction is better] and counting off my fingers to make a fist like Lucy does in Charlie Brown, but that'd be kind of hard to display in a blog, so this is what you get.)

Love ya, sis. What should we argue about next? I'm so excited.
-Becca