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If you look through the list of the books I've read in the last few years, you will see a lot of fiction with just a sprinkling of non-fiction. If you look at the books I've purchased in the same amount of time, you will still find a lot of fiction -- but you will also find that I own a heck of a lot of non-fiction. Fiction compels me to read it, non-fiction compels me to own it.
In the past five years, since I really started tracking and paying attention to what and how I read, I've noticed that I read non-fiction completely differently than I read fiction. When I start a work of fiction, it's like I'm poised on the edge of a diving board, and when I turn that first page I plunge into the water. I submerge myself, coming up for air in gasps and then plunging back below the surface.
When I read non-fiction, I slowly and deliberately feel my way into the water. First a toe, then my ankles, calves, and waist. I might splash around a bit and briefly duck under, but I generally don't go too deep, even when it's non-fiction I really, really like. Pippasmum reads non-fiction much like I do.
When I read non-fiction, I tend to read very slowly and pick up and put down a book over and over and this book has been no exception. When I do read it, however, I feel like a person lost in the desert who has found a secret lake -- I just can't get enough.
When I'm actually reading non-fiction, I love it, but when I put it down, it can take me days to get back to it. Non-fiction books are the books in my house most likely to be (temporarily) abandoned. Most people would take this as an indication that I don't enjoy them. That couldn't be further from the truth. I love reading about people's lives, and reflecting on how they are so different from my own. I love reading about events, and the steps were that created them, what ripple effects they had on the world. If you look at my bookshelves, you will mostly see memoirs and history books. I really believe that part of the reason that I chose to study anthropology and history in university is that I'm actually a bit of a nosy person, and I like to get a peek inside other people's lives.
One thing I find about non-fiction is that I tend to stick to certain topics; I'm not quite as adventurous as I am with fiction. Even within the memoir/biography/history triangle that I have going on, I tend to stick to certain areas. Women's memoirs, Canadian history, WWI and WWII memoirs and histories (especially of women), memoirs about food (eating or cooking, I'm not particular), and gardening. In the past couple of years I've added stories of real-life spies to my collection (especially if they are women -- are you sensing a pattern here?). I'm a complete sucker for those "year of" memoirs.
The blogosphere allows me to extend my nosiness not only into people's lives, but their bookshelves as well. Right now, a lot of people are still talking about their "best of 2009" non-fiction reads.
Each year, I patiently wait for Contributing Editor Zandria's annual What I Read list. Zan predominantly reads non-fiction, and she happens to have excellent taste in her reading choices.
After reading Kathi Lipp's post of her favourite non-fiction reads last year, I'm quite upset that my library does not have Susy Flory's So Long, Status Quo. It may just have to make it on to my list of potential book splurges.
Both Kathi and Rachelle Gardner have Susan Pohlman's Halfway to Each Other on their lists.
Trish wrote about some of her favorite non-fiction reads in October. Some of my personal favorites are on there, like A Year in Provence. I love people's real-life stories of going to live in another country.
What I love about non-fiction is that I really do believe there is a topic out there for everyone. What's yours?
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey also blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
