It is important to read fiction regularly, especially if you have a lot of nonfiction to read already.
Why Read Fiction? It disengages your mind, in other words, it lets you relax. People who read books, in general, tend to live longer. Fiction makes your life richer and more interesting than other watching TV.
Reading fiction improves your “human” (aka “non-scientific”) vocabulary – which at some point will also affect the quality of your academic writing. Just remember that next time when you are struggling to write a literature review, compiling many different sources into a cohesive text, trying to avoid that they sound like your 6th grade elementary school homework back in the days, or not make the impression of “just a bunch of notes glued together”, one after the other.
Writing style comes from reading fiction. When you are writing, words and expressions will only start “flowing” freely when you have enough of them “in stock” – and that comes from reading fiction, not from watching TV, playing video games or chatting on facebook.
Most importantly: reading fiction is your free choice, it is not compulsory. Nobody can take away the intellectual freedom of reading from you.
Read More Fiction. You won’t regret it.