Can somebody explain the difference between well-being and affect?

Most of them are low quality and repeat the same concepts countless times. The only times I've found they're useful are if they're written by actual scientists. So they're books about science, no BS and framed in a way to help people manage their lives.

Great question (and advice). So let me think. I guess I fight it because I don't want to become one of those people that everything has to be functional. Also, as you said I want to nurture my imaginative side. It's also about language. I don't want to unlearn more creative/imaginative forms of language. (In part, i try to do this by reading poetry.) After a while my way of writing becomes too dry if I don't read fiction I'm afraid. I'm an academic and I relate to what you said, don't want to get stuck in this hyperlogical code I already engage with in my work on a daily basis. But your strategy seems promising.

Same really. Could have written this myself

Love your answer, thanks for elaborating. I think i relate to what you're saying. When I was younger I craved new experiences and fiction opened the world for me. I could live thousands lives, as my own had yet to get started if that makes sense. So it definitely served my growth that way. I wouldn't say that I read fiction for entertainment/escapism either. It was paradoxically very practical, exactly like in your case. Now I have seen and experienced my fair share of life and I no longer look for thar kind of experience that fiction provided. My priority now is to learn things that I haven't had the chance to learn earlier, to understand myself and the world around me better. Thanks for giving me the words to get some clarity over my own experience!

Btw, interesting what you say about the radical difference in depth of real life as opposed to story. To this, I don't relate. I think that also bleak and mundane things around us can be interesting/story-worthy, depends on your gaze, it's all in the eyes of the person that looks.