PROF. JENKINS: Need a break from politics? Read a novel.

Rob Jenkins is a Higher Education Fellow with Campus Reform and a tenured associate professor of English at Georgia State University - Perimeter College. In a career spanning more than three decades at five different institutions, he has served as a head men’s basketball coach, an athletic director, a department chair, and an academic dean, as well as a faculty member. Jenkins’ opinions are his own and do not represent those of his employer.

Whatever you think about the election results, you may, like me, be a little burned out on politics right now. Perhaps you feel the need to escape, at least for a few hours.

There are many ways to accomplish that. Go for a long walk in the woods. Binge-watch a new TV series. Play a video game. All fine ideas. But in my opinion, nothing is as effective, in terms of pure escapism, as simply picking up a book.

When I say “book,” what I really mean is “novel.” Unfortunately, according to a recent article in the Atlantic Magazine, college students these days don’t really read books, and those who do are more likely to choose (or be assigned) non-fiction.

While that can be an excellent way to learn new information, it’s not a good way to escape. Non-fiction is grounded in this world, whereas fiction transports us into another world, one of our imagination. THAT’S escape.

But it’s more than that. Fiction also has a way of helping us understand and relate to this world on a deeper level. A novelist friend of mine likes to say his job is to “tell the truth by lying.” Good fiction, although “made up,” offers real insights into the human condition.

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So if, like me, you’re mentally drained from all the election drama, I highly recommend that you take a break and dive into a good novel. I’m not going to try to browbeat you into reading “the classics,” even though you probably should. Instead, I’m going to suggest some excellent, non-political, contemporary novels that I think you’ll enjoy.

First, if you like detective stories—the “thriller” genre on Netflix—you can’t go wrong with Daily Wire host and best-selling novelist Andrew Klavan’s Cameron Winter series. Klavan just released the fourth book in the series, A Woman Underground, and all four are excellent.

Winter is a former government assassin turned English professor who is haunted by his past—and often pursued by bad actors from that past. There’s plenty of physical action, but the books actually operate more on a psychological and even spiritual level as the agnostic Winter explores the nature of existence and ultimately seeks redemption.

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If you like those books, let me suggest another thriller writer you’ve probably never heard of: Dick Francis. Francis was a champion jockey in England who, after his early retirement, went on to have a stellar career as a novelist, writing over 50 best-selling books.

Francis’s protagonists are ordinary people, usually associated in some way with the horse-racing industry, who find themselves in a tight spot due to no fault of their own. They must figure things out and extract themselves from a sticky situation fraught with risk to life and limb.   

Another “escapist” genre you might enjoy is fantasy. And in that regard, I cannot make a better recommendation than Stephen R. Lawhead. A transplanted Nebraskan who now lives in Oxford, Lawhead has written dozens of books in multiple series, most set in pre-medieval Great Britain and combining elements of fantasy with actual history.

A good place to start is with the Pendragon Cycle, a retelling of the Arthurian legend with plenty of “sword and sorcery” action and even a cameo by the Lost City of Atlantis. You may be aware that the Daily Wire is making the Pendragon Cycle into a TV series, due to be released early next year. Now would be a good time to read the books, so you can better understand the story.

One final suggestion: If you used to read novels, but haven’t in a while, consider going back to some of the books you once enjoyed—like Hunger Games or Harry Potter. Re-reading a great story is a little like spending time with old friends you haven’t seen in a while. 

Obsessing over politics for months on end may have worked out pretty well for you—or maybe not. But whether your side won or lost, now is the perfect time to lose yourself—and perhaps find yourself—in a good novel.

Editorials and op-eds reflect the opinion of the authors and not necessarily that of Campus Reform or the Leadership Institute.