Monday, March 18, 2013

Can Non-Fiction be Exciting?



Why am I reading another non-fiction book? Well ... I'll tell you: The introduction of this memoir sucked me right in! I felt like I was reading a follow-up scene to a short story I once wrote:

Click here to read my short story.

So ... I'm only on page 7 of this memoir, and I hope the writing continues to be as interesting as it was in the introduction. Of course, I will let you know! :)

But I have to ask the questions:
1. Do you think non-fiction writing can be exciting?
2. Do you have non-fiction books that you stopped reading and never finished?
3. What's the best non-fiction (memoir or otherwise) you've ever read?

2 comments:

  1. Rush Limbaugh's The Way Things Ought To Be was a very quick read. He takes some very sensitive topics and discusses remedies in a very entertaining manner. I have to say, his voice annoys me now that I've heard him on the radio many years later.

    If you read the book without having ever known who he was, I think he'd come across rather charming and funny.

    Also, Gerry Spence wrote a book How To Argue And Win Every Time which I found highly entertaining.

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  2. This has been the year of non-fiction reading for me. I was an avid fiction reader. Going back to school utterly knocked *that* fun out of me. So, off I went to non-fiction land. I have always loved biographies and autobiographies, so it is not in the least bit painful.

    I blogged about JUST this subject last month.
    http://www.theglasshouseretreat.com/1/post/2013/02/-saturday-share-books-that-made-a-differenceso-far.html
    ^^^ shameless plug ^^^

    I think non-fiction writing IS exciting - depending on the subject matter, of course. I think memoir writing is particularly wonderful.

    I have probably stopped reading a NF book at some point, but I couldn't tell you what. I tend to have three to five books going at the same time, so although I might stop for a little while I go back to it. It might be months later.

    I do not have a favorite NF book ~ there are just too many to choose, although, I will say my professor's book is like poetry. The subject matter may be offensive to some, but when she writes it's like poetry. When she speaks, she speaks in rainbows. Her command of the English language is just magnificent. "Whip Smart" by Melissa Febos. Check her out. She is currently editing her first novel. She had a reading and I loved it.

    Sometimes I read an author's NF book(s) first and then their fiction doesn't do it for me. I am always a little disappointed by that.

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