We've all gone through a phase with a book on the bedside table that we have the best intentions to finish, but keep reaching for our phone instead. It's not that we stopped enjoying reading. Scrolling just got easier.
If you've drifted toward reading exclusively non-fiction, you're not alone in that either. Non-fiction feels productive. You close a book on habits or sleep and feel like the evening went somewhere. Fiction can feel harder to justify - it’s enjoyable, but not exactly building toward anything.
But fiction does more for your brain than most people give it credit for. The benefits of reading fiction go deeper than most expect: it builds empathy, cuts stress faster than most things we reach for when we're overwhelmed, and gives the brain a type of recovery that absorbing information can't. We've looked at what the science says and listed the 25 fiction titles our LinkedIn community recommended most for 2026.
Reading fiction builds empathy
When you read non-fiction, your brain is processing, evaluating and storing information. When you read fiction, you're transporting yourself into another world, seeing things through a character's eyes and living out experiences you might never have had yourself.
Psychologists Keith Oatley and Raymond Mar at the University of Toronto found that people who read fiction score higher on empathy measures than non-readers because your brain processes fictional experiences in a similar way to real ones. You're essentially practising for situations you haven't been in yet.
David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano at the New School for Social Research found that reading literary fiction (particularly the kind with complex, morally grey characters) improved readers' ability to accurately detect other people's emotions.
Reading fiction is a great way to switch off, and it's also shaping how you see the world and the people around you.
Reading can reduce stress by 68%
Dr David Lewis at the University of Sussex found that reading for just six minutes reduced stress levels by 68% - more than listening to music, going for a walk, or making a cup of tea. The key was getting genuinely absorbed in a story rather than half-reading while mentally drafting tomorrow's emails.
This is where fiction has an edge over most things we reach for to unwind. Scrolling feels passive, but it's actually reactive. You're constantly processing things and responding emotionally to them. Non-fiction asks you to think, engage and apply what you're reading. Fiction asks your brain to follow rather than evaluate, and that's something your nervous system rarely gets a chance to do.
There's a reason every Unplugged cabin comes with a shelf of books alongside the phone lockbox. Guests consistently say they read far more than they expected. Without the phone pulling their attention, most people find they haven't lost the ability to sit with a book for an hour. They just hadn't had the right conditions in a long time.
Reading fiction is proper escapism
Fiction lets you live a life that isn't yours for a few hours. You can be in rural Alaska in the 1970s, or a dystopian future, or following a character through a grief you haven't experienced and hopefully won't. Mentally stepping out of your own head is one of the more underrated things you can do for your wellbeing.
People who read for pleasure consistently report higher self-esteem and a greater ability to cope with difficult situations. Non-readers are 28% more likely to report feelings of depression. Reading fiction also expands your frame of reference in ways that are hard to get elsewhere. Pick up a novel set in a world completely different from your own and you come away having processed injustice, love or failure through someone else's experience. That changes how you see things, even if you can't always trace it back.
There's a reason so many people describe a great book as something that stayed with them long after they finished it. The story ends, but the perspective shift doesn't.
Fiction is great for human connection
Book recommendations travel differently to other recommendations. Telling someone about a podcast episode they might like is one thing; handing them a book you loved and saying "you have to read this" is something else. It's more personal, somehow.
Reading fiction gives you a shared language with other people. Book clubs exist for a reason - there's something about unpicking a plot, debating a character's choices or disagreeing about an ending that sparks a different kind of conversation to most things. It's also just a nice thing to have in common with someone. Some of the most-mentioned titles in our community list below came with comments from readers saying they'd recommended it to everyone they knew.
Reading is a great analogue hobby that's always within reach
One of the reasons we scroll so much is convenience. The phone is always there. It requires zero effort to start, and there's always something new to show you. Most analogue hobbies can't compete with that. You need equipment, space, another person, or at least the motivation to set something up.
A book is about as low-friction as it gets. It doesn't need charging. It doesn't send you notifications. There's no algorithm deciding what comes next. You just pick up where you left off.
The moments we're most likely to scroll are exactly the moments a book fits into: waiting for something, winding down before bed, that quiet gap after dinner. The research backs this up too: reading fiction before bed, unlike screen time, doesn't disrupt sleep. It's one of the few evening habits that actually helps you wind down rather than keeping your nervous system alert.
Frequently asked questions about reading fiction
Is reading fiction good for you?
Yes, more specifically than most people realise. Research shows that people who read fiction score higher on empathy measures, and reading for just six minutes reduces stress by 68%. The benefits of reading fiction tend to show up in relationships and how well you decompress rather than as a single learnable skill, which makes them easy to underestimate.
Is reading fiction better for you than non-fiction?
For different things, yes. Non-fiction builds knowledge and practical skills. Literary fiction builds empathy, reduces stress and gives your brain a different kind of rest. If you've dropped fiction entirely, the research suggests it's probably costing you something.
How long do you need to read fiction for it to have an effect?
Six minutes was enough to show a measurable stress reduction in Dr David Lewis's 2009 study. Longer habits compound over time. The main thing is genuine absorption — actually following the story rather than reading the same paragraph three times while your mind is somewhere else.
What type of fiction is best to read?
Literary fiction had the strongest effect on empathy in research — the kind that sits with moral complexity rather than resolving it neatly. That said, a book you actually finish beats the objectively better one you abandon on page 40. Start with whatever you'll actually read.
The 25 most recommended fiction books for 2026, from our LinkedIn community
Earlier this year we asked our LinkedIn audience one question: what books would you recommend in 2026? We got hundreds of responses. These are the 25 titles that came up most often, ranked by how many people mentioned them.
- The Wedding People — Alison Espach
- All the Colours of the Dark — Chris Whitaker
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow — Gabrielle Zevin
- Wild Dark Shore — Charlotte McConaghy
- The Nightingale — Kristin Hannah
- The Great Alone — Kristin Hannah
- I Who Have Never Known Men — Jacqueline Harpman
- The Safekeep — Yael van der Wouden
- Remarkably Bright Creatures — Shelby Van Pelt
- My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels) — Elena Ferrante
- Babel — R.F. Kuang
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo — Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Red Rising — Pierce Brown
- Throne of Glass — Sarah J. Maas
- ACOTAR (series) — Sarah J. Maas
- Fourth Wing — Rebecca Yarros
- Mistborn — Brandon Sanderson
- Piranesi — Susanna Clarke
- James — Percival Everett
- The God of the Woods — Liz Moore
- The Names — Florence Knapp
- Atmosphere — Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Blue Sister — Coco Mellors
- Where the Crawdads Sing — Delia Owens
- Demon Copperhead — Barbara Kingsolver