The Reading Challenge Group discussion

The polls have spoken, and members have decided to vote for both the Non-Fiction and World challenges to be added in 2015! Us mods are going to have our work cut out for us!

This is the thread where you can discuss the Non-Fiction Challenge in prep for 2015.

We're currently trying to dwindle down the rather large list of non-fiction genres, mainly by combining certain genres or removing some that are too similar! So watch this space!

This is the list I posted previously. I'm hoping we can get some good discussion going so we can decide on 12 categories for next year.

I suggest we focus on categories we like or would like to see included. Perhaps even list your 12 "favorites."

This is a list of Non-Fiction Categories which I've put together. I thought it might help us to sort out the ones for which we, as a group, have a preference. You could look it over and talk about your favorites. Also, Please feel free to suggest other categories that I may have overlooked.

-biography
-memoir/autobiography
-history (world, 20th C.)
-current events
-travel
-finance/business
-psychology
-personal improvement
-relationships
-family/parenting
-sport related
-science
-nature
-sociology/social history
-religion/spirituality
-health/wellness
-skill related (writing, car mechanics, painting)
-hobby (collecting, gardening, jewelry)
-arts related (art, film, tv, photography, theater)
-career related (law, medicine, etc)
-true story/true crime
-animals/pets
-scholarly reference
-essays
-food related (cooking,
-philosophy
-mathematics
-technology

Memoir/Autobiography
Biography
Food
Health/Wellness
Travel
Hobby
History
Religion/Spirituality
Philosophy
Psychology

Great! Thanks, Melissa. I'll add "Food/Cooking to the list. :)

Wow there are so many I never considered. Maybe nonfiction is not so bad.

Maybe we could put all the self help related topics together in one month.

Unfortunately, "self help" had gotten a bad rap with many readers. Just those words get a knee-jerk, I-hate-self-help reaction... Which is why I chose not to include it on the list. However, several of the topics might easily be considered "self help." (Yep. I'm sneaky like that.) :D

My favorites:
biography
memoir/autobiography
history (world, 20th C.) (Would like to see this broken down into specific centuries, i.e. more than one month.)
current events
science
nature
true story/true crime

Becca-
How specific would you go? Ancient. Medieval. Renaissance. Etc?

Melissa, I didn't think that far! Maybe just a couple of eras to start with.

I'm a bit of a self-improvement junkie, so to me, self-help books seem like something I'd love to read! Maybe it's just me. :P

Since polling so many choices would be fairly impossible, I've started a tally to try and keep track of the topics in which most members show interest. I hope more people will weigh in. Twenty-two voted for a Non-Fiction Challenge and another thirty-two chose BOTH challenges, so, hopefully, we'll hear from more members.

Also, I'll add Math and Technology to the Big List. Thanks, Iasa!

Herre are my favourites:
-biography
-memoir/autobiography
-history (world, 20th C.)
-psychology
-personal improvement
-family/parenting
-sociology/social history
-health/wellness
-arts related (art, film, tv, photography, theater)
-animals/pets
-food related

Here are my favourites:

-biography
-memoir/autobiography
-history (world, 20th C.)
-travel
-psychology
-sociology/social history
-religion/spirituality
-true story/true crime
-Mathematics
-essays
-philosophy
-science

If Mathematics becomes one of our monthly reads, I am totally relying on you guys to come up with book nominations. The only thing I've got is Richard Feynman (and I think he's physics).

Part of me thinks it might be easier on people if we combine Science and Maths? It just widens the spectrum a bit?

I like it, but I'm more of "skin out" than "skin in" when it comes to the sciences. Maybe Nature could be combined with Biology?

That definitely works!

Bertrand Russel, Albert Einstein, G.H. Hardy are perhaps some of those that I know who have written really interesting books on Maths. They have some books on the various theorems and total 'geek' aspect of Maths as well as some biographies and memoirs, which make for an interesting read.

However, I do agree with you Holly, maybe combining Science, Maths and Technology will make it really broad and bring in some diversity in the reads as well.

I'm actually pretty excited to pick your brains when it comes to book nominations. I love learning new things!

It has the potential to be so informative!

My flatmate is doing a Neuroscience module in Psychology, and hates it. And then I'm there geeking out going 'But that sounds so interesting!'.

Clearly I'm just too sad...

No! I'm with ya! I'm hoping the monthly topics give us all the chance to explore/embrace the inner geek!

Haha Renee. I am pretty excited as well, given that this challenge will finally help me read some of the books that I have in my to-read list! So I guess the motive is purely selfish!

Holly - I totally understand your situation as I have been in many such similar ones myself.

My suggestion would be to use the Dewey decimal system as a base for the monthly groups
000 – General works, Computer science and Information
100 – Philosophy and psychology
200 – Religion
300 – Social sciences
400 – Language
500 – Pure Science
600 – Technology
700 – Arts & recreation
800 – Literature
900 – History & geography

Definite Possibility, Rob. I certainly like the simplicity of it.

Shall I record those topics as your "favorites" or is that just a suggestion for organization?

For the history buffs, you could have a History Challenge where you would break down History per era and assign a month to it. Ancient - January, and so forth. Just a thought Renee.

My favourites:

-biography
-memoir/autobiography
-history (world, 20th C.)
-finance/business
-psychology
-family/parenting
-sociology/social history
-health/wellness
-career related (law, medicine, etc)
-true story/true crime
-animals/pets
-food related

I think I'm the one who suggested breaking history down further. I take it back! I definitely couldn't add a full year history challenge to all the other challenges! :-)

Lol. Maybe as a mini-challenge, though.

Iasa wrote: "I'm a big nerd"

nothing wrong with that ! :-)

my favourites:

-history (world, 20th C.)
-travel
-personal improvement
-relationships
-family/parenting
-science
-religion/spirituality
-health/wellness
-skill related (writing, car mechanics, painting)
-hobby (collecting, gardening, jewelry)
-arts related (art, film, tv, photography, theater)
-food related (cooking,
-philosophy
-technology

holly wrote:I'm a bit of a self-improvement junkie, so to me, self-help books seem like something I'd love to read! Maybe it's just me. :P
Add me to the list :)

oh, and I like Melissa's idea of a history challenge!

This non-fiction challenge is exciting!

Thanks, Kassandra and Kiwi. We're trying to keep a tally of everyone's favorites. Your lists are helpful. :)

Actually Sandy there are really interesting books in that category. Just thinking of my local library's 000 section I've borrowed books on the history of the book and on the development of the internet from there, and there are also books on topics like libraries, AI and cyber privacy and security. Sure, that might not light everyone's fire, but there is some meat in there for sure. It's not just computer science textbooks and random bits and pieces.

Renee wrote: "Definite Possibility, Rob. I certainly like the simplicity of it.

Shall I record those topics as your "favorites" or is that just a suggestion for organization?"

just a suggestion :)

God, I feel so bad for posting here without being really into Non-Fiction :/ Anyway, those would be the ones which would be interesting to me and would join the challenge:
-biography
-memoir/autobiography
-history (world, 20th C.)
-travel
-psychology
-personal improvement
-nature
-religion/spirituality
-true story/true crime
-animals/pets

There aren't even twelve... I'm really sorry. I'm just having a really hard time to get into Non-Fiction :( I realized it this month again. I put a Non-Fiction book on my TBR list, but already shelved it again, because I don't think I'll read it.

Thank you, Alessandra!
Honestly, I'd be grateful if you only posted two topics which interested you. No apologies necessary! We just want to know what people like, so we can set up the months. And, your interests are as valuable to us as someone who reads lots of Non-Fiction.

Typically the NF Group Read has less participation than the others, and fewer people who participate consistently. Hopefully, we can spark things up a but for next year. :)

Of the nonfiction books I read, I usually will gravitate towards sports, true crime, history, and biographies.

Hi all,

Just read through your comments and I noticed a few of you have mentioned a History challenge, I think that's a great idea. it would be good to get a better feel for the history of the kings and Queens in England, so many different eras, feuds and family's. I would also love to read something around Art or film.

History
arts related (art, film, tv, photography, theatre)

I like Rob's Dewey Decimal list. It makes good sense when you think about it. All nonfiction falls into these categories at the library so essentially nothing is left out, making any book fair game!

Hi all, great ideas so far!

I only managed to have a quick scan through the above comments, so sorry if I am repeating anyone. My idea is this - would anyone be interested in perhaps loosely tying in the Non-Fiction monthly choice with the Genre Challenge choice? As a quick off the top of my head example, see below:

(Current 2015 List as per Renee's post 12 Oct)

- January:
Historical Fiction - History
- February:
Romance & Chick-Lit - Relationships / Biography
- March:
Contemporary and Literary Merit - Lit Crit
- April:
Poetry and Plays - Arts
- May:
Fantasy (including Utopian) - Self-Improvement
- June:
Minority Studies/LGBT - Geography / Memoir
- July:
Manga/Graphic Novels &/OR Humor - Cookbook &/OR Humour
- August:
Mysteries (Crime/Cozy/Espionage) - True Crime
- September:
Science-Fiction (including Dystopian) - Science / Technology
- October:
Horror/Thriller &/OR Short Story Collections Religion/Spirituality/Paranormal &/OR Essays
- November:
Adventure &/OR Travel - Travel
- December:
Children's Lit &/OR Traditional Lit - Family &/OR Sociology/Local History

That is a really interesting idea, Lucy, thank you!

Personally, I like the idea of having quite a varied month, but it's definitely an idea we can use if people are up for it!

Thanks Holly! I'm up for anything really - varied or tied in. Just thought I'd put this one out there for people who like sticking to one genre per month :D

It is an awesome idea!

I love Lucy's idea! My kids read those magic tree house books and there is a nonfiction book to go with all the fiction books. Yep that is what I thought of when I saw the list.

I love Lucy's idea. But then I like immersion. I usually nominate classics and YA that reflect the genre of the month.

However, I think we should chat about it more. Hopefully, some others will weigh in with their thoughts.

I like the idea of pairs of books, but I think having a 24 book (minimum) challenge versus a 12 book challenge might intimidate a lot of people. Maybe the fiction part could be an informal challenge.

Becca-
I don't think the suggestion was meant to be a 24 book challenge (yikes!). Just matching up the genre to topic each month. Still two separate challenges.

Renee wrote: "Becca-
I don't think the suggestion was meant to be a 24 book challenge (yikes!). Just matching up the genre to topic each month. Still two separate challenges."

Guess I jumped to the wrong conclusion! The side by side challenges should be fun.

I am very open to Lucy's idea, but here are my favorite of the non-fiction topics that have come up:

Biography
Memoir/autobiography
travel
food/cooking
true crime
relationships
self improvement
hobby

Looking forward to this as I am very much a Fiction reader and would love to have the encouragement to branch out!

My Personal Hopefuls:

Biography
History
Travel
Psychology
Religion
Health/Wellness
Arts
Science
Nature
Philosophy
Personal Improvement
Writing (skill)