Do you feel guilty when you read fiction some times? Do you feel like it’s a frivolous pursuit? Sometimes, I do, because I’d think to myself “might as well watch a TV show”, and I hardly ever watch TV shows because, to me, they’re a waste of time. But damn it, some of these novels are so good and I can’t stop once I started reading them.
I read both. I tend to forget the nonfiction and the low tier fiction pretty quickly. The good fiction stays with me.
There’s also a lot of truly terrible nonfiction bestsellers. (Fans of the “If Books Could Kill” podcast know what I mean).
There’s no reason to feel guilty, IMO, unless you’re failing school or something.