It has to do with empathy and emotional intelligence:

According to both 2006 and 2009 studies published by Raymond Mar, a psychologist at York University in Canada, and Keith Oatley, a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto, those who read fiction are capable of the most empathy and “theory of mind,” which is the ability to hold opinions, beliefs and interests apart from their own.

They can entertain other ideas, without rejecting them and still retain their own. While this is supposed to be an innate trait in all humans, it requires varying levels of social experiences to bring into fruition and probably the reason your last partner was such a narcissist.

TL;DR:  Imagination requires feedstock.

Tl;dr: Goodreads is a stealth dating site.

hahahaha!  totally.

Novels are rarely about happy marriages :/ A person can be witty and empathetic as heck, and still have few practical skills around managing relationships.

Well said.

Yep, building and maintaining a successful long-term relationship is...complicated! 

This just might be the time and place to re-stash this:

http://pandawhale.com/post/25690/study-reading-fiction-makes-people-comfortable-with-ambiguity

Ooh. Well played, Geege.