Reading non-fiction is just as important as reading fiction when you are practicing reading, but most non-fiction books learners (even high-level ones) will end up reading are targeted towards children which is fine, but you are more exercising your knowledge rather than learning new things. If you are looking for a bit more of a challenge Wikipedia is a huge resource that is completely free and unrivalled in its variety of content.
For example, if you are a high-level learner try reading [this article on 雹 (ひょう, hail)](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/雹). Even if you have to look up a lot of the words on the page, you might still be pleasantly surprised by just how much of it you understand. Try reading articles on topics that interest you!
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Just note that on the Japanese Wikipedia, historical topics have a tendency to be influenced by ultranationalist politics. The number of Japanese wiki editors isn’t as high per capita as in many other countries, so it’s more susceptible to people seeking to push an agenda.
Just something to keep in mind. I agree that Wikipedia is a great source for immersion, and for learning specialised vocabulary.
I have the [おまかせ表示/random page](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%89%B9%E5%88%A5:%E3%81%8A%E3%81%BE%E3%81%8B%E3%81%9B%E8%A1%A8%E7%A4%BA) link bookmarked; it can be fun to see how much I can understand, or even just try to figure out what the article is about.
Just be careful not to come across [really badly written articles](https://i.imgur.com/waqWgzm.png) (purple name is Japanese) because there seems to be quite a few of them. Personally I find most wikipedia articles boring and there’s more interesting stuff out there, but anything that sparks interest is good.
And this is a perfect place to use an inline dictionary like Yomichan.
This is considered a good read. [地方病 (日本住血吸虫症)] https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9C%B0%E6%96%B9%E7%97%85_(%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E4%BD%8F%E8%A1%80%E5%90%B8%E8%99%AB%E7%97%87)
Thank you for suggestion! personally I think Wikipedia in general is more suitable for advanced learners, the language and the content tend to be too formal, specific and scientific compared to general articles and blogs about the same topics, I remember when I was learning English I reached a level where I can manage reading blogs, stories and that sort of thing but still struggling with Wikipedia until I came across Simple English Wikipedia which was perfect for me.
Of course that’s my personal experience, my general rule is that if it something you enjoy doing in your own language you should try it in your target language don’t force yourself if it’s not, I see many people begin their language journey with things like trying to read books when they don’t like reading books in their own language which isn’t the best approach in my opinion
I do try to read articles in Wikipedia sometimes and there are many ways to make it easier and more fun, it’s good to start with the ones that have direct translation in English, you can start with the English one and then switch to the Japanese to increase your understanding or navigate the material between the two.
Another idea is to choose topics that you really like and know a lot about, or films and anime that you’ve watched and read the summary plot of them.
If you find the long articles to be too intimidating you can either start with shorter ones or only read the overview at the beginning.
hmmm… this still seems way beyond me
reading dictionary entries is enough for me, personally I only use wikipedia for topics I’m curious about. For non-fiction I reccomend tutorials, self-help books, reviews/blog posts.