It’s a new week in Non-Fiction November and this time the theme is nonfiction Favorites which is hosted by Leann at Shelf Aware. The challenge:
We’ve talked about how you pick nonfiction books in previous years, but this week I’m excited to talk about what makes a book you’ve read one of your favorites. Is the topic pretty much all that matters? Are there particular ways a story can be told or particular writing styles that you love? Do you look for a light, humorous approach or do you prefer a more serious tone? Let us know what qualities make you add a nonfiction book to your list of favorites.
This was a hard one to think about. I have been reading non-fiction forever and I think I’ve been attracted to the same areas forever, too. My reading journals go back to 1997 (my blog only to 2007) and looking at what I read in 1997 (for yes, I am inputting them all into a spreadsheet), the non-fiction included (I’ve done this from the titles, some might have got missed out). I’m going by the fact that I finished these, therefore I enjoyed them. I didn’t love all of them I’m sure but some I’ve read again since – definitely some authors have appeared several times.
Murphy, Dervla Tales from two cities
Miedzian, Miriam Boys will be boys
Rushkoff, Douglas Cyberia life in the trenches of hyperspace
Tressider, Joy Hugh Grant
Knox Johnson, Robin Sea and ice
Lau, Evelyn Runaway diary of a street kid
Wurtzel, Elizabeth Prozac nation
Desai, Anita Journey to Ithaca
Ackroyd, Peter Blake
Crisp, Quentin Resident alien
Lee, Hermione The secret self
Sheldon, Dyan On the road reluctantly
Hanff, Helene 84 Charing Cross Road
Bull, Angela Noel Streatfeild
Davies, Ray X-ray
Gilliatt, Mary The decorating book
Bryson, Bill Mother tongue
Adair, John Effective leadership
Argyle, Michael The psychology of interpersonal behaviours
Lewis, Norman A goddess in the stones
Theroux, Paul The great railway bazaar
Dodwell, Christina Travels on horseback through east Turkey
Holt , John How children learn
Sacks, Oliver The island of the colour blind
Sutherland, John Can Jane Eyre be happy
Sutherland, John Was Heathcliff a murderer
Theroux, Paul The happy isles of Oceania
Various, The weirdest ever Notes & Queries
So that’s basically popular culture, management and business, travel (lots of travel!), language, literature, child development, biography and memoir and psychology with a big of tech.
Fast forward to this year so far and the non-fiction has looked like this:
Tirzah Garwood Long Live Great Bardfield
Chrissie Wellington A Life Without Limits
Bella Mackie Jog On
Ian Thorpe This is Me
Malala Yousafzai I Am Malala
Ziauddin Yousafzai Let Her Fly
Alys Fowler Hidden Nature
Simon Parkes Live at the Brixton Academy
Lisa Tamati Running Hot
Elizabeth Emens The Art of Life Admin
Sara Marcus Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution
Nancy Campbell The Library of Ice
Mary Mackie Cobwebs and Cream Teas
Caroline Criado Perez Invisible Women
Simon Armitage Gig
Mark Boyle The Way Home
David Coles Chromatopia
Jeremy Mynott Birds in the Ancient World
Gretl Ehrlich This Cold Heaven
Paul Newman Lost Gods of Albion
Michael J Benton The Dinosaurs Rediscovered
Lynne Murphy The Prodigal Tongue
Vassos Alexander Don’t Stop me Now
Steve Haywood Narrowboat Dreams
Stephen Rutt The Seafarers
Harriet Harman A Woman’s Work
Verily Anderson Spam Tomorrow
Shaun Bythell Confessions of a Bookseller
Lara Prior-Palmer Rough Magic
Robert Phillips Futurekind
Louise Palfreyman Once Upon a Time in Birmingham: Women Who Dared to Dream
Jason Fox Battle Scars
Cy Adler Walking the Hudson
Martin Gayford The Pursuit of Art
Susan Lacke Running Outside the Comfort Zone
Richard Grant Dispatches from Pluto
Gavin Knight The Swordfish and the Star
Amrou Al-Kadhi Unicorn
Jo Brand Born Lippy
Ros Ball and James Millar The Gender Agenda
Clara Parkes Knitlandia
Garth Cartwright Going for a Song
David Leboff No Need to Ask
Clair Wills Lovers and Strangers
Simon Napier-Bell Ta ra ra Boom de ay
So that’s a larger percentage of my reads, but again, (a bit less) travel, popular culture esp music, more sociology, biography and memoir, sport is a new one, more nature (and much more to come), transport, feminism, language and a bit of tech (or going tech-free). I don’t think I’ve changed much in these 22 years.
A book is good in my eyes if it makes me think and teaches me something new or how it is or was to live in a particular way/time/place. Probably popular science rather than pure science, but teaching me more about the world, sometimes springing from something I know, sometimes not.
I’ve enjoyed comparing Past Me with Present Me and seeing that what I’ve enjoyed has been pretty much the same! Have your non-fiction tastes changed over the years?
Lots of lovely non-fiction on there to come!
Adventures in reading, running and working from home 
Nov 18, 2019 @ 10:47:02
Lots of my favourites here! I loved Hidden Nature, Invisible Women and The Library of Ice. I haven’t read many of your older picks but I’ve been using John Holt in my lectures this term as an example of radical thinking around childhood in the 1970s.
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 10:54:07
It would be interesting to re-read Cyberia 20 years on – I still have it. I re-read Nicolas Negroponte’s Being Digital a while ago and it still stood up. And that’s interesting about John Holt, and cool.
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 11:05:41
I may not have read that much non fiction in my life. At different times I have read left wing politics (eg. Daniel Cohn Bendit, Obsolete Communism), cosmology (Steven Hawking, On the Shoulders of Giants), but mostly now my non fiction reading is confined to literary theory (Eagleton, Lodge) and literary biographies and memoirs. My favourite is Eve Langley’s NZ journals collected as Wilde Eve.
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 11:18:11
You’re a brave man to tackle Eagleton!! I can manage Lodge as we studied both at university but he’s more readable (and I’ve met him a few times, as I was at Birmingham when he was an honorary professor!).
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 11:26:53
I love a comprehensive favorites list, this was excellent! And I kind of can’t believe it but I haven’t read a single one of your favorites! Maybe the Bill Bryson one, perhaps it has a different US title, I think.
I have read some Gretel Ehrlich and love her writing, though, so This Cold Heaven is already on my list. Have you read anything else of hers? The Solace of Open Spaces is my favorite. I keep hearing about Invisible Women too, it sounds like a must read.
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 16:23:54
Gosh, that’s astounding, although some of those are pretty old, of course! Invisible Women is excellent but upsetting. It’s good for proving stuff to doubters, though, as extremely well researched and backed up. I haven’t read any other Gretel Ehrlich and will be sure to look out for more, thank you.
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 16:30:55
I love anything that helps make a case for the doubters, so that one sounds perfect!
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 12:19:03
Wow I’m so impressed you’ve kept reading journaley for that long!! I really need to start so I can look back someday and enjoy reviewing the things I read…
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 16:24:25
I’ve still kept the paper journals even when I went to online reviewing and they are a lovely collection to have.
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 14:52:59
Interesting comparison of lists! And I agree – I like non-fiction to teach me something, or at least make me see things anew!
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 16:24:51
Thank you! It was a bit of a sudden inspiration to do that, as I knew I had input 1997 onto my spreadsheet already!
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 17:09:05
Wow, you read a lot more non fiction than I do, and so much more widely. It is interesting to see how many of the themes you read in 1997 still interest you. I think my non fiction would also be much the same, mainly biography, memoirs, letters, some travel and nature writing. I probably like being taken away from myself by places and people (travel, nature biography) than learning things, that probably why I also prefer fiction. Lovely to see Long Live Great Bardfield on this year’s list – I also really loved that one.
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 18:18:19
I reckon Great Bardfield will be on my top ten for the year and it was the first book I read this year! I have an element of enjoying going to places and times I will never experience myself, for sure.
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 19:45:00
I didn’t realise that you were a fellow lover of travel writing. I was a judge on the Stanford Dolman award this year. This Cold Heaven is one of my all-time favourite books and I haven’t read anything else by her yet.
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 20:02:57
Yes indeed. I can see I haven’t read as much pure travel writing this year as I did in 1997 but I have so many favourites who have been so for years – Eric Newby, Paul Theroux, all the intrepid women travellers … I have a Newby coming up on the TBR, actually.
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 20:44:45
Which one? I have just bought a copy of the Big Red Train Journey
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 20:51:19
Ignore me, I have just looked at your photo. On the Map is really good as well as Rising Ground.
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Nov 19, 2019 @ 06:35:14
Ah, thank you, that’s nice to know. Can’t wait to get into them all although NetGalley calls from my Kindle, too!
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Nov 18, 2019 @ 23:17:41
This list looks great! I had a hard time remembering the books I’ve read, and even favorites. LOL. I went back a few years in my posts and goodreads, but I am not ever that great at adding in to Goodreads either. So bravo to you here!! So many of these sound good!
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Nov 19, 2019 @ 06:36:10
It is nice to have the journals but I can never remember if or when I have read various authors or books, hence slowly getting them all onto a spreadsheet so I can refer to it then find the volume and the review! A lot of good books here, indeed!
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Nov 19, 2019 @ 12:28:05
It continually amazes me at how different our reading lives can be, yet, almost always, we have lines of similarity. I read through your list of lovely titles that sound delightful but which I have never read and then suddenly I see a Paul Theroux and a John Holt and I find common ground.
Now I need to get out my TBR list and add and add and add….
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Nov 19, 2019 @ 15:01:48
I suppose the first one in particular is quite specific to the books available in a good town library and the second hand bookstalls in a bit of South London in the 1990s, I don’t see that many of those around now. And there are so many books and we all have our little niches of interest, don’t we! I have added a fair few to my TBR this month, I have to say!! BTW You should be able to find reviews for all the 2019 ones by searching on this blog, the older ones will be on here if I’ve re-read them since 2007!
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Nov 20, 2019 @ 16:38:44
That’s a great list. I wish I had a rundown of my reading since 1997. It’d be fun to look that far back. I saw your comment about Nicolas Negroponte’s ‘Being Digital’ and I’m going to have to sit down with that one again. It would be good to re-read and see where it holds up and misses the mark. I really enjoyed it when it came out.
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Nov 20, 2019 @ 16:46:20
Thanks for visiting my blog and welcome! Yes, it was fascinating to re-read that one, actually back in 2012 – here’s my review from then: https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/book-reviews-21/
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Nov 21, 2019 @ 21:08:22
How interesting to compare post you w present you! Good idea!
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Nov 22, 2019 @ 17:07:40
Thank you – I enjoyed doing it and it was interesting to see I’ve not changed that much in all that time!
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Nov 22, 2019 @ 03:21:14
Preblogging I read a lot more nonfiction because I’d always get 8 fiction novels and 2 nonfiction titles when I went to the library. I love your comparison, thanks for sharing.
Please stop by to see my NonFicNov: Favourites
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Nov 22, 2019 @ 17:11:07
Oh, that’s interesting; was there a reason for that ratio?
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Nov 22, 2019 @ 18:03:38
I basically used non fiction as a palette cleanser, I’ve never been able to dip in and out of fiction. I pretty much read any book I pick up in one sitting, but I can do it with non fiction usually so it was a break as well in a weird way.
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Nov 22, 2019 @ 09:20:27
I think I read less non fiction these days, oddly. It ised to be a lot of travel and history but these days it seems to be aimed towards science, philosophy and theology mostly. A lot of the titles you listed did grab my eye, which is always pleasing,
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Nov 22, 2019 @ 17:16:32
I come and go with it, sometimes reading more than others. This has been a good year for non-fiction for me, though.
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Nov 22, 2019 @ 10:24:08
Interesting collection of nonfiction books. Thank you for reminding me of John Sutherland’s two books. I heard him talk at the Brussels Brontë Group event some years ago. I must get hold of these books. I am a fan of the Brontës.
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Nov 22, 2019 @ 17:21:34
They are really good books and he’s written some more since. I’m jealous that you’ve seen him speak! Thank you for visiting my blog!
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Nov 23, 2019 @ 15:26:55
Wow, that is an impressive list of nonfiction for this year! Also, it is an interesting comparison. Unfortunately, I don’t keep any journals, but I don’t think my taste in nonfiction has changed much over the years. Not sure if this is a bad thing, I would actually like to expand my horisons a bit (Running Outside the Comfort Zone?)
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Nov 23, 2019 @ 17:47:06
Thank you for visiting my blog and I’m glad you liked the post. I’m pleased to have read so much non-fiction this year, as it does go up and down a bit I do try to expand my horizons a little and ha – yes, that would be a good one to try if, for example, you didn’t read many sports books!
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Nov 23, 2019 @ 15:44:40
Love how you’re tracking your taste in books as time progresses! I think for me my nonfiction taste rapidly expanded about five years ago in undergrad, when I read the iconic memoir Appetites by Caroline Knapp. I love memoirs that get me emotionally invested and books about mental health and social justice, which has not shifted too much since I started reading nonfiction.
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Nov 23, 2019 @ 17:43:56
I expect that will remain your taste and interest for your life, now, which is great! I had a huge burgeoning in the range of my fiction reading in about 1996-7 when I was first living in London and using Lewisham Library – where lots of these books came from, but also fiction by a huge range of gay authors, people of colour, etc. And I’ve stuck with those ever since too.
I think I’m going to stick the full yearly lists up on a page per year when I’ve got them all entered onto my spreadsheet!
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Feb 27, 2020 @ 17:07:15
This is a nice list to explore from. I wonder, are some of these book some sort of a science art, something like Glass Bead Game, Utopia or Flatland? I like that type of books that combine science and art…
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Feb 28, 2020 @ 08:31:39
Thank you for your comment. This was specifically part of a non-fiction challenge, whereas the books you mention are all fictional, so not particularly in that way, although I read a certain amount of popular science and technology.
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