Learn more about BAND here.
Joy of Joy's Book Blog asks:
What book or books have you used or are you using to support a goal, resolution, or project?
I am hereby pleased to announce that I will be hosting August in the 2012 Year of Feminist Classics. We'll be reading The Bluest Eye, and I'm pretty excited about hosting the discussion. After all, I did write my undergraduate thesis on Toni Morrison.
Other than that (and the other books for the challenge along with the ones from last year I didn't get to), I don't have any specific books that I plan to read this year. There are some new releases I'm looking forward to (the sequel to Delirium, for example, and I think Jasper Fforde has a new book or two slated to come out this year as well), though. I'm trying to keep my standards low in case grad school eats my life again.
Showing posts with label BAND. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BAND. Show all posts
Monday, January 16, 2012
Thursday, August 11, 2011
BAND: August Prompt
I'm participating in BAND: Blogger's Alliance of Non-Fiction Devotees, and it's time for the August prompt.
Over at Amy Reads, Amy asks:
While I read a fair amount of non-fiction as a kid (probably considerably more than average), I didn't get into non-fiction as a genre until I was in college. When I was in elementary school, I was the kid who liked to read reference books (dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias) for fun. Whenever I ran across a topic I was especially interested in, I'd visit the school or public library and check out books on the subject. My family didn't have a lot of money growing up, so the library was an invaluable resource for me. I didn't read non-fiction for pleasure, though. I only read about subjects I was interested in, and then, it was more for the acquisition of knowledge than anything else.
That changed when I started college and took classes that used shorter works of non-fiction instead of textbooks. The first semester of my freshman year really changed the way I looked at non-fiction, particularly my introduction to writing course. Rather than offering a generic "how to write papers" class, Scripps had several topics within the Writing 100 label to choose from. Since I was among the last to register, I was assigned to the section whose focus was on genocides, to be taught by a professor whose (Jewish) family fled the Nazi regime. Cheerful! I wound up really enjoying the class, despite the incredibly depressing subject matter, because the books we were assigned were so good. We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, and A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power are still high on my list of non-fiction works I recommend to others.
I wasn't quite hooked yet, though. That happened after taking a number of women's studies and sociology courses over the ensuing four years. They, too, primarily relied upon shorter works of non-fiction rather than full-length textbooks, and I found myself seeking out additional works by the likes of Susan Faludi, bell hooks, Barbara Ehrenreich, and many, many others. I found myself branching out to related fields by exploring the whole of the 300s section in the library, and using Amazon.com's recommendation algorithm to find new subjects to read about. I felt the same way that many do when they discover fiction: a whole world had opened up for me, only it was the real world instead of the world of make-believe.
These days, despite having majored in literature, I find myself reading more non-fiction than fiction, at about a two to one ratio. I think I may still have fiction fatigue from undergrad!
Over at Amy Reads, Amy asks:
Last month Kim of Sophisticated Dorkiness hosted the first discussion, asking What’s your favorite type of nonfiction? I had a lot of fun reading the answers that everyone submitted and they helped lead me to my topic for this month. One of my favorite things about reading is how one book leads to another which leads to another and so on. For a lot of us, nonfiction wasn’t something we always read and it was a specific topic or book that drew us in. And then once we started, we just couldn’t stop.
So this month I’d like to know:
How did you get into reading nonfiction? Do you remember your first nonfiction book or subject? If so, do you still read those subjects?
While I read a fair amount of non-fiction as a kid (probably considerably more than average), I didn't get into non-fiction as a genre until I was in college. When I was in elementary school, I was the kid who liked to read reference books (dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias) for fun. Whenever I ran across a topic I was especially interested in, I'd visit the school or public library and check out books on the subject. My family didn't have a lot of money growing up, so the library was an invaluable resource for me. I didn't read non-fiction for pleasure, though. I only read about subjects I was interested in, and then, it was more for the acquisition of knowledge than anything else.
That changed when I started college and took classes that used shorter works of non-fiction instead of textbooks. The first semester of my freshman year really changed the way I looked at non-fiction, particularly my introduction to writing course. Rather than offering a generic "how to write papers" class, Scripps had several topics within the Writing 100 label to choose from. Since I was among the last to register, I was assigned to the section whose focus was on genocides, to be taught by a professor whose (Jewish) family fled the Nazi regime. Cheerful! I wound up really enjoying the class, despite the incredibly depressing subject matter, because the books we were assigned were so good. We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, and A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power are still high on my list of non-fiction works I recommend to others.
I wasn't quite hooked yet, though. That happened after taking a number of women's studies and sociology courses over the ensuing four years. They, too, primarily relied upon shorter works of non-fiction rather than full-length textbooks, and I found myself seeking out additional works by the likes of Susan Faludi, bell hooks, Barbara Ehrenreich, and many, many others. I found myself branching out to related fields by exploring the whole of the 300s section in the library, and using Amazon.com's recommendation algorithm to find new subjects to read about. I felt the same way that many do when they discover fiction: a whole world had opened up for me, only it was the real world instead of the world of make-believe.
These days, despite having majored in literature, I find myself reading more non-fiction than fiction, at about a two to one ratio. I think I may still have fiction fatigue from undergrad!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
BAND: July Prompt
Over at Sophisticated Dorkiness, Kim asks:
When I'm looking to read something a little less serious, though, I either go for stunt memoirs (like Kim described in her entry) or random, quirky histories of everyday things. These satisfy my desire to learn about other people and eventually make millions on Jeopardy!, respectively, and I don't feel like I'm wasting time when I read them because I've learned something new.
Like fiction, nonfiction isn’t a monolithic term. Just like there are sub-genres or types of fiction (literary, women’s, mystery, thriller, horror, the list goes on), nonfiction has many varieties too. There’s creative nonfiction, essay, travelogue, self-help, biography, memoir, and more. With so many types of nonfiction (as well as topics covered), there are nonfiction options for everyone. With that in mind, this month’s question is a simple one:
What is one of your favorite types of nonfiction to read? OR What is one of your favorite nonfiction topics to read about?
I read a pretty wide variety of non-fiction. When I visit the library or bookstore (and I'm not after a specific title), I always start by skimming the new arrivals in non-fiction to see if there's anything that looks interesting. After that, I make my way to the social science section in the bookstore, or the 300s shelves at the library (300 = social sciences in the Dewey Decimal system). I know that saying "My favorite type of non-fiction is in the 300s section in the library" is a little overly broad, but there it is.
I'm a sociologist at heart, despite my BA in English literature and my soon-to-be Master's in Social Work. This means I like my non-fiction to come with a side of critical thinking, socio-cultural analysis and critique, and, most importantly, address some pressing issue. This is why most of the non-fiction books I find myself enjoying are of a feminist or anti-racist bent (or both). I like for my reading to be at least semi-productive some of the time, and I think that learning about those things will ultimately make me a more positive contributor to society.
When I'm looking to read something a little less serious, though, I either go for stunt memoirs (like Kim described in her entry) or random, quirky histories of everyday things. These satisfy my desire to learn about other people and eventually make millions on Jeopardy!, respectively, and I don't feel like I'm wasting time when I read them because I've learned something new.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Something I'm excited about:
BAND, or the Blogger's Alliance of Non-Fiction Devotees, has launched. I'm really looking forward to participating in the project. As you've all probably noticed, I read a lot of non-fiction (current split is about 60-40 in favor of it), and have occasionally wondered at the lack of a unified presence of non-fiction readers in the reading blogosphere. It seems that most interaction points (Top 10 lists, blog hops, and other memes) are geared towards fiction readers, and I've always found that sort of unfortunate. Here's to that changing!
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