Everyone knows what the food pyramid is. Grains on the bottom, next fruits and veggies, dairy and meat, and a small amount of fats and sugar at the top. But what if literature could be put into a pyramid like this? There are different kinds of literature and some kinds should be read more than others, just like food.
The idea came from a friend who called comic books and graphic novels "book candy". If comics are candy and should be read the least of the different kinds of literature, why can't there be other comparisons? I decided to create a "book pyramid" for my fellow book lovers out there. I hope it's helpful.
I am putting non-fiction on the bottom of the pyramid, after a lot of debating. The word non-fiction often conjures up images of dry, dusty books, full of boring stuff nobody cares about. Maybe some ancient authors writing in Latin or Greek also. While there are some books like this, (Latin is actually pretty interesting, though) lots and lots of non-fiction is interesting, engaging, and informative. Fiction is very important too, but non fiction is the root and ground of fiction. Non-fiction sits at the bottom, holding everything up. Almost everything we know about the past, is written in non-fiction. History about lands and people, times of war and times of peace, biographies, diaries. All non-fiction. Science, which is so important to advancement and technology, falls into this category. Languages, logic, how-to guides (like this blog), math, which science is dependent on, the list goes on. All this is not just for historians and scientists, or kids being forced to go through school. These are things we depend on every day, and topics that are amazingly interesting. Not everyone finds all these categories interesting. I certainly don't. But everyone should find non-fiction that interest them, whether it's nature, earth, outer space, people, animals, the past, languages, cultures, arts, chemistry, poetry. We can learn so much from non-fiction, and often enjoy it at the same time. I really enjoy reading diaries and biographies/autobios. Learning about languages and their evolution is another category I enjoy. Non-fiction doesn't have to be confined to dry, boring books.
Fiction is also super important. Although the pyramid would have fiction where vegetables and fruits go, as less important than grains, I think good fiction is just about as important as non-fiction. You can tell I'm a reader when I say that reading a good piece of fiction is a way to relieve stress and chill, a way to fill up spare time, something to take my mind of anger or sadness, something to do when I'm happy. Fiction is so enjoyable to read. It takes your mind of the difficulties of the day and puts you into someone else's world where you can imagine being the characters. What you read seeps into your mind, so reading good stories is so important. The way the characters act and walk in the story will effect how we walk in real life. Sometimes fiction can effect your thinking far more than non-fiction. Choose good fiction, and don't just go for the most popular writing in our culture. Read a mix of modern and old fiction. Modern authors and authors writing a century ago can both have writing with excellent themes to fill our minds.
I'm going to skip to the top now, where things like ice cream are on the food pyramid. As I mentioned before, this is where the "book candy" resides. Once in a while, it's fine, even good to read comic books and similar things like graphic novels. Sometimes we just need to take a break from heavier reading and enjoy something simple, like Calvin and Hobbs or Mickey Mouse. This isn't really literature though, and isn't healthy to read in great amounts. Is this pretty much all you read? Try occasionally resisting the comics and read an actual fiction or non-fiction book. The more you make yourself read good literature, the easier and more enjoyable it will become.
The last category is in between fiction and comics. This category is kind of vague, but I thought it deserved mention. Into this category falls fiction like cheesy romances, books way bellow reading level, and maybe graphic novels with more reading and less pictures than typical ones. This level is sort of yours to decide how it looks. Books that are too easy to read or aren't really building you up in your reading. This is kind of like book candy in that sometimes we just need to relax by reading easy, silly books. That's totally okay as long as it's not the only thing your reading. Sometimes I like to read my little sister's books that are lying around or reread one of my childhood favorites. Not everything can be or should be challenging, educational, and edifying. Make time in your busy lives for reading all these kind of literature. Silly stuff, fiction, and non-fiction. Reading is not just something the professor hands out as a weekend assignment, but a life-long enjoyment.