Sunday, August 21, 2011

BAND Discussion: How did you get into non-fiction?

This week I decided to participate in the August BAND discussion. BAND - Bloggers’ Alliance of Nonfiction Devotees - is a group organized to promote the joy of reading nonfiction. The members of the group are “advocates for nonfiction as a non-chore.” Each month, a member of BAND hosts a discussion on their blog relating to nonfiction. This month’s host for the discussion is Amy of Amy Reads.

Amy asks:
How did you get into reading nonfiction? Do you remember your first nonfiction book or subject? If so, do you still read those subjects?

I mentioned in a previous post I was an avid reader as a teenager. Living on a farm in rural Wisconsin my reading was more about trying to figure out life (or the life I thought I was missing out on) than anything else. The books I read were mostly fiction with no particular preference for any one genre. In college I gave up recreational reading for textbooks and did not return to reading for pleasure until after I had passed the CPA exam over a decade later.

It had been so long since I had read an actual novel I initially had a hard time determining what I wanted to read. I started with the classics and fiction recommended in the newspaper or featured on best-seller lists. I discovered Oprah's book club and began making my way through her selections. With each book I became increasingly disenchanted with fiction. If you have ever read any of Oprah’s book club picks you may understand my disenchantment – the majority of them are down right depressing. The book that pushed me over the top and into the forays of nonfiction was Tawni O’Dell’s Back Roads - it seemed as though O’Dell had taken every horrible thing that could possibly happen to a person and crammed it into one book. After Back Roads, I was done with Oprah’s book club and began looking for a different reading experience.

Shortly thereafter, I took Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail with me on a camping trip. This book was one of the funniest books I had ever read and a perfect pick for a vacation in the woods. I enjoyed learning about the Appalachian Trail and jotted the following note from the book in my journal:

200 year old pecan trees were commonly chopped down just to make it easier to harvest the nuts on the topmost branches.

When I returned, I decided to read more nonfiction and found this list* of Nonfiction That Reads Like Fiction at the library. I read Steven Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, Tony Horwitz’s Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before and Caroline Alexander's The Bounty : The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty. Each of these books led to more note taking and a realization that I enjoyed reading to learn and discover the truth instead of the propaganda.

From there I discovered book blogs most notably Citizen Reader reading many of the books she featured. Some of my favorites include Joe Bageant’s Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War, Paul Clemens's Made in Detroit, and Richard Longworth's Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism.

Currently I read nonfiction almost exclusively. I enjoy almost anything nonfiction, but prefer memoirs, biographies, history, business and economics books; basically any book that teaches me something new about what is going on in the world.

*This is the on-line version of the original list. Steven Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage is no longer featured.

14 comments:

  1. Gosh! I'm such a fiction junkie that I don't know when I last read non-fiction. About ten years ago a book about longitude, I think. and it was good. I use fiction to escape, and am not the least bit picky about it - well, as long as it's suspense or mystery.

    Some day I will tackle non-fiction, just not today!

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  2. Very interesting journey! Thanks for sharing. The depressing aspect of fiction is a big reason I read so much nonfiction as well. Great that a blog helped you in your love for nonfiction too!

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  3. I keep seeing people mention Bill Bryson. I like nonfiction and travel, so I have no idea why I haven't picked up one of his books yet. I certainly need to do so!

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  4. I am a fiction lover, but by way of non-fiction, I am addicted to 'science/medicine made accessible to the layman' books such as anything by Steven Jay Gould, Atul Gawande, etc. I loved Simon Singh's "Big Bang" and "Fermat's Last Theorem" which is an very readable history of mathmatics. I do have to say that "Wof Hall" nearly turned me off English history entirely. Not surprisingly, I love to read and write science fiction.

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  5. I do hate super depressing fiction. It just makes me so down after awhile. I bet Bill Bryson would be amazing for a camping trip. Thanks for sharing your nonfiction story!

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  6. I am a lover of both Bill Bryson and Stephen Ambrose. A Short History of Nearly Everything is one of my top 5 all-time favorite books.

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  7. Webb,
    Now I know who to ask when I’m looking for fiction recommendations. I usually take a couple of fiction books with me when I go on vacation.

    Amy,
    Searching for what to read next was why I started paying attention to blogs in the first place. I have to mention another great resource I use for discovering nonfiction titles is Kim’s blog Sophisticated Dorkiness.

    MJ,
    If you do read Bryson let me know what you think. I have read quite a few of his books some I love others were just okay.

    Grace,
    I love your book recommendations. I have never been a big science fiction reader. I bet you could recommend a couple of good selections to get me started.

    Kim,
    I am really enjoying BAND. Thanks for organizing it. I am finally meeting other nonfiction book bloggers.

    Pam,
    I haven’t read “A Short History of Nearly Everything” I think it is time.

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  8. I haven't read a nonfiction book in a long time. I do enjoy getting lost in a story, but sometimes the authors go a bit over the top for sure. I need to check out some nonfiction books soon!
    Stopping by from LBS, it's nice to meet you!

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  9. I love to add non-fiction into my reading mix. I'm visiting from the Lady Blogger Tea Party. Have a great weekend!

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  10. Although I love both fiction and nonfiction, I would have to say that a bigger spot in my heart is reserved for nonfiction. I'll have to take a look at the books you recommend!

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  11. Thanks for sharing what turned you into a fan of non-fiction. I am going to check out more of the books you said read like fiction and I had Bill Bryson's book on my TBR already.

    So glad you linked up with Throwback Thursday and hope you link back up again this week!

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  12. Thank you for linking up to #ThrowbackThursdayLinkup! I tend to read more nonfiction too. Sometimes I might be reading more than one book at a time which is kind of crazy!

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  13. I read more nonfiction than fiction. I can sometimes be reading more than one book at a time! Thanks for linking up to #ThrowbackThursdaylinkup!

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  14. I just read and don't think of books as non-fiction or fiction. Anything I choose to read, is because it sounds interesting to me. I have found myself enjoying historical fiction more recently though. It's a good combination.

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