Literature is everything that has ever been written. Literature is more than just printed words. It is something that can change the way that a reader feels. There are two types of literature, fiction and non-fiction. By examining the literature itself, the readers, and the writers, one can note the differences and similarities in the two types of literature .
In the poem, "A Study of Reading Habits," Philip Larkin talks of being unhappy both in his home and at school. He read books where the good guys fought the bad guys, books where the good guys always won the battle. In his adolescent years, Larkin talks of wearing one inch glasses. He wasn't very successful when it came to girls. To compensate for the lack of sex, he envisioned himself as being a vampire and ripping the clothes off of his victims. Then he realizes that his failures and shortcomings in his personal life have made it virtually impossible for him to identify with any characters of any book. So he stopped reading because the books no longer were interesting to him.
There are many different reasons why people read books, however, all people are different and the types of books they read are different also. People read books not just for the knowledge and information they learn from it, but they read because of the enjoyment and pleasure they feel while reading it. Some people like fiction books created from the writer's imagination. Such creativity is shown in forms of comic books and short stories in magazines. On the other hand, there are readers who prefer to read non-fiction books that are based on truth and facts, and real-life situations. Some examples of these types of writings include essay, history, biography, autobiography, and diary. .
Readers expect the writer to take them away from their stressful lives. They want to put themselves, as a character, inside the books that they read. They want to be able to relate the book to real life situations.
