Besides reading our textbooks, most of us like to spend our leisure reading novels. It is very hard to answer the question: Is novel reading a waste of time?' The answer may be yes or no. Some people agree that novel reading is a waste of time, for they think that our textbooks are already a heavy burden, and we should not waste our time on 'useless' novels. In my opinion, novel reading is not a waste of time, for we may obtain knowledge which we cannot gain from textbooks. Of course, it depends on the type of the novel we read.
Some novels help us to obtain knowledge of nature. Some help us to understand the difficult and gloomy side of life. Moreover, there are also many good novels which can widen our knowledge and meanwhile give us a wonderful time.
On the other hand, there are many bad novels. They advocate wrong ideas and superstitious beliefs. There are immoral books which even cause social disease. We waste our time if we read these novels. They act as poison to our minds. What is worse is that we cannot resist those wrong ideas, which may lead us to do very foolish things.