Could That Best-Seller be Bad for Your Health?

There’s growing evidence to support the idea that fiction books can be good or bad for you. It’s a drum I’ve been beating on for a very long time.

I begin supporting my own belief about this by going directly to Scripture: Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things (Philippians 4:8).

Books, after all, cause us to think of things. Whatever fills the pages ultimately fills our mind.

But this doesn’t mean that books ought to be boring. I’m not interested in reading boring books—or publishing them either!

This directive in Scripture shouldn’t translate into fiction books that don’t capture our interest and don't take us on an adventure.

I was invited on Catholic television where I was asked to talk about the newest trend in YA fiction (young adult fiction): the fastest growing audience of YA books is adults! This is because adults love the adventure, characters and even intrigue found in a cleverly crafted YA book—and they like the way they feel when they are done reading it.

So I wasn’t surprised when I recently read in the book Hildegard of Bingen’s Medicine that “It is detrimental for the nerves if persons are always reading new thrillers, or the newest bestsellers.” It goes on to say how the nerves can, however, benefit from reading excellent books and even recommends re-reading them.

I immediately thought of a few amazing fiction books that I had planned on re-reading this fall and now feel even more excited about doing so:

1.     The Green Coat byRosemary McDunn. Love this book!

2.     The Gate by NancyCarabio Belanger. Easily a classic!

3.     Finding Grace byLaura Pearl. I plan on joining her 2015 online book club for the book.

Of course, these are also the reasons that we ought to immerse our tweens and teens in great fiction as well—and these books are a perfect start!