Book Reviews

‘The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.’ Alan Bennett

“Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.” ― Franz Kafka

Wednesday 19 June 2013

Non-fiction Spotlight!



Welcome to a brand new, occasional series on the blog, entitled 'Non-fiction Spotlight', featuring non-fiction books that I have been reading. Although much of my reading time is spent in the company of novels, I do very much enjoy reading a variety of non-fiction books too and I have reviewed one or two in the past here on my blog. I thought that when I do review or want to highlight a non-fiction book in the future it could be part of a sporadic feature, hence this post. 

From time to time I read biography, history, travel, health, wildlife, and other non-fiction books. I'm not sure what this feature will incorporate yet, or how often it will appear, but I have a couple of books in mind to get it started: I've recently read Welcome to Biscuit Land by Jessica Thom, so that one will be featuring next, and I hope to read Death in the Baltic by Cathryn J. Prince and The Spy who Loved by Clare Mulley soon. I have lots of other non-fiction books I've bought sitting on my to read pile that I hope to look at going forwards and mention here too.  

I'd be interested to know how much non-fiction others who primarily read fiction get through, and whether you think about it differently in terms of whether you would ever feature it on your book blog. I hope you enjoy these occasional reviews.

7 comments:

  1. Non-fiction, yay!
    *rubs hands in anticipation*

    I find it such a shame how non-fiction gets neglected in the book blogosphere. I do know people read it, but somehow only few will ever blog about it (yours truly for example).
    As to your question - looking back onto my Goodreads reading challenges on previous years I'd say I read roughly 1/3 non-fiction which isn't all too shabby seeing how I read about 150 books each year.
    That said ... looking forward to your new feature! :-)

    P.S.: If you want to (no pressure, really) you may still sign up for my "This isn't Fiction Reading Challenge", 'cause the more the merrier, obviously. Here's a link to the last update post: http://the-book-garden.blogspot.co.at/2013/06/this-isnt-fiction-reading-challenge.html

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    1. Hi Birgit, thanks very much for commenting. I didn't realise you had a challenge going on, this is a great idea, I am over to have a look now! Thanks for highlighting it to me. It's good to hear you blog about non-fiction too. That is a good amount of non-fiction out of your reading as a whole.

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  2. Most of the non-fiction I've read recently deals with autism as my son has ASD and I tend not to feature it on my blog as I think it's probably too specialised. However I do have a couple of more general titles lined up for the summer : Gulp by Mary Roach, a wonderful popular science writer and Claire Tomalin's bio of Dickens which I bought for the bi-centenary...oops...better get going!

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    1. Thanks very much for commenting Treez. They both sound like interesting non fiction titles, it can take time to get around to reading them can't it. One of mine on my picture, The Spy Who Loved, I've had for a while and not got to yet. I hope the books you read dealing with autism are helpful. x

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  3. A while ago I realised that I had a massive pile of non-fiction books waiting for me to read them. I have such a different attitude towards non-fiction than I do fiction and it takes a certain mood for me to read it but then I really enjoy it when I do. I've set myself a little challenge (I'll blog about it at some point) to read six non-fiction by the end of the year in the hope of expanding my horizons! I am very much looking forward to your reviews :)

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    1. Good luck with your challenge, Ellie, hope you manage to fit in some non-fiction reading too. :)

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  4. I always have a non-fiction read on the go, but since I take much longer to read them I don't get through as many as fiction. Mostly history and political biography in my case and I always blog about them - though I'm pretty sure they don't get read nearly as often as reviews of fiction. But they work as a reminder for myself of what I thought about the books.

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