What nonfiction do you read?

I'm probably coming to the party late, but a hearty congratulations!

What a sweet thing to say! You're not late at all. I only joined AW about 30 seconds ago, so there's no reason anybody would bring it up.

lol, good point. I don't mean nobody would know, just that I don't expect a big party over it since I'm new and was in this state when I joined. Thank you, though!

Sorry for hijacking the post! So...non-fiction you read, anyone?

KCathy, I'm a "Bradley girl." At least I was 18 - 22 years ago when I was giving birth to my three kids.

Congrats!

As far as nonfiction, have you read Anne Lamott's "Operating Instructions?" It's a journal/memoir of her son's first year.

I also loved "Bird by Bird," a great memoir/guide for writers, and "Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith." It sounds religious, and Lamott does talk a lot about her faith, but it's irreverent and hilarious, too. "Traveling Mercies was the predecessor of "Plan B," but I haven't gotten to it yet. It's on my list.

Nonfiction. Lately it's been mostly David Foster Wallace essays, David Remnick's New Yorker collections and books, Frank McCourt's "Tis" and "Teacher's Man," and "A Course in Miracles" (for personal perseverance).

Read one novel over Christmas. "Finding Noel" by Richard Paul Evans. It was excellent, I thought. ... Also, like Shelley, I've enjoyed Rick Bragg in the past.

Dianna, the chapter in my book about Bradley was one of the two sample chapters I wrote for my proposal, hence the whole book on that one. That book and several friends at the attachment parenting forum where I mod are part of the reason that I decided to go natural on purpose this time. I had a delightful epi experience and a horrible accidental oops-the-anesthesiologist-is-stuck-in-surgery for my first two.

To return (as you so admirably did) to topic, I keep hearing about Bird by Bird, so maybe I should just go on a Lamott spree and get Operating Instructions, too.

Naturally, after posting that I rarely read non-fic, I ended up devouring Betsy Lerner's The Forest for the Trees. I loved it so much and found its descriptions of writers and advice so encouraging, practical, and helpful, that when I hit the last page I immediately turned back to the first page to start re-reading it.

Probably most people still prefer fiction. Fiction is attractive for readers because we want something bright, something extraordinary, something that will shake our imagination or whatever. On the other hand, life itself is so marvelous, so different that a real biography of some actual person may change our vision of many things or phenomena. I personally like biographies and autobiographies, because they turn to be powerful sources of inspiration or just give food for thinking.

MarkButler said:

Plus "Halseys Typhoon", the story of a WW2 war-fleet that sailed into a typhoon that "tossed aircraft carriers around like bathtub toys" sank 3 destroyers and killed 800 men.

Click to expand...

My father was in one of two typhoons that Halsey's fleet was hammered by, and on duty. He saw a wave cover a destroyer and when the ship came back up, it was missing most of its bow. He was in an area that was normally 80 or so feet above water and looking UP at the waves.

**********
To be on topic, I read a lot of biography. The best ones are bios of relatively obscure people who are near prominent people: a disgruntled diplomat's wife can write a tell-all about her side of diplomacy that you'll never see in history books.

I also try to get several from one era or about one event, which led me to the bio of a China missionary who was captured by bandits during the Boxer Rebellion and another book with some interesting telegrams from the US Army troop that was trying to catch the bandits (the telegrams are bitching about the stupidity of the missionaries for staying after even the Empress told them she couldn't protect them).

And plain non-fiction, like "The story of Ice" that covers all the ways people had to haul it, keep it, and produce it before true ice making was possible. Victorian sociology ... I have one book with a map of the economic levels of the various neighborhoods.

Most of what I read is nonfiction. When I read fiction I prefer older works.
Nonfiction includes:
books about the stock market, writing and reference books, sales & marketing, some biographies and essays. I also enjoy computer and software books and manuals. American history is another biggie, for me.

I have a collection of books about Richard Nixon that I've read, but I wouldn't say I enjoyed them. Now I'm beginning to read books about the bush administration. Currently: Worse than Watergate, by John Dean.

With my reading time at a premium, I tend to stick almost exclusively to non-fiction.

The last non-fiction book I read was a lousy Stephen King novel (Cell) and that was such a fierce waste of time it sent me scurrying back to my usual political/current affairs field of reading. I just finished Hubris by Michael Isikoff and David Corn about the Bush Administration's pre-war planning and how the information was skewed to fit the desired goals. I started, but didn't finish Fiasco by a Washington Post writer whose name I have forgotten about how badly the post-war occupation of Iraq has gone.

I'm deep into reading books by Black intellectuals such as Michael Eric Dyson, John McWhorter and activists like Tavis Smiley. As much as I enjoy a well-written work of fiction, I prefer these days to be informed first and entertained second.

I read mostly non-fiction these days. I feel like if I am investing the time, I ought to be learning something. I used to LOVE fiction and be deeply moved by it. Now I tend towards nonfiction.

I read a lot of political books and a lot of theology (C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, John Neuhaus, etc.) and some history (religious history, American history, etc.)

Yes, I tend to read five books at a time, if we're talking non-fiction. I usually only read ONE fiction book at a time.

I've been into reading non-fiction these days too. I just finished Teri Hatcher's book "Burnt Toast" - I found it pretty good, nice and light.

Otherwise I read a lot of diet books, it's what I mostly write articles on so it's good for research. As of late I've read most of Lyle McDonald's books.

I used to read lots of books about politics and history, but that's a while ago. Then I turned to books about fashion - The End of Fashion by Teri Agins, The House of Gucci, The House of (Calvin) Klein.
I also generally like books about marketing and brands - Seth Godin's The Purple Cow, Trading Up - but more recently I've turned to books that might turn out to be useful to me personally: just today I bought Ellen Lupton's 'DIY Design It Yourself' which gives all kinds of ideas about how to design envelopes, business cards, letters, T-shirts etc.