Retro Reads discussion

Do you enjoy non-fiction? Please recommend your favorite non-fiction book or topic.

I can't remember when the internet barged into my life and stopped me reading books. I just remember a wasteland of time, and probably just daily life, when I didn't even pick up a book.

I was someone who always had a book in progress, more than one, so when I finally realized I was starving for books, I bought one that was popular at the time, even though I owned shelves full of my favorites from the past.

That popular book was a non-fiction, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . 5 stars. I liked it because it read like fiction. That's the kind of non-fiction I like. I think most folks do. Who likes dry non-fiction with lots of statistics? That's why A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail got 2 stars from me, the stats got in the way of the comedy.

As for topics, I will go for almost any topic, but unless the writing keeps me reading, I will not continue. Right now I'm reading a memoir.

I love non fiction, but have a relationship with self-help books that had been more than a little bit of an addiction. I kept buying them, then not reading them and buying more. So I made a rule NO MORE and kept that up for years. Good for me! This past year I have relaxed the rules a bit and went through The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity with a group and that was excellent. Not too long about I read The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth which blew my mind, frankly. One of those books you want to tell everyone about since we should all read it!

Going forward, I'm going to try and keep it to one non fiction at a time but, just like fiction, there are so many I see that look good and I want to get to. As always 99.9% of what I read is free, mostly through my library.

CindySR wrote

it read like fiction. That's the kind of non-fiction I like. I think most folks do. Who likes dry non-fiction with lots of statistics?

well, nobody likes dry, but thinking about this for a bit I know what you mean, but I would disagree. I love non-fiction that reads like fiction but The Light Eaters, for example, while not the slightest bit dry and full of stats, does not read like a story I don't think. Well, maybe sort of? some of the chapters are like the story of an interview but I would not say "like fiction". I guess that isn't too clear so I might come back and edit.

I agree, I enjoy nonfiction that reads like fiction, and I’m torn between my favorite type of nonfiction- science and history. Barbara Tuchman is probably my favorite old-school historian, I love her passion for her subject and the fact that she was largely self-taught, no ph.d. As to favorite modern, still alive historian, I’d say Nathaniel Philbrick; his Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy was a delight, and his trilogy on the American Revolution was fascinating (Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution, Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution and In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown).

For science, I’ve enjoyed so many authors, but the two that leap to mind in the last few years are Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist, and Merlin Sheldrake, a mycologist. His Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures was brilliant, as are Brusatte’s The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World and The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us.

Oh, and I can’t forget Yuval Noah Harari, I’ve read and been blown away by several of his books.

The Light Eaters looks like something I would like, thanks!

I almost always like non-fic in the form of interviews.
The first one I read was Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do--I read it soon after it got to be famous enough for me to find a used paperback copy.

The next, I found in a remaindered remainders bin on 14th Street in New York--and this is a book I have reread in whole or in part over decades--The Magic Factory: How MGM Made An American in Paris; it's interviews of everybody from Minelli down to the studio tour guide, arranged wonderfully by the editor.

My profession led me to especially delight in movie and stage production lore interview non-fic, but I'll read just about any kind of history when I get it "out of the horses' mouths."

The Magic Factory sounds like an interesting book, Susan.

I don't read anything like the amount of Non fiction as I do fiction - & when I read it I am very slow. It's hard to know what will take my fancy.

My two main types of nonfiction reads now would be NZ illustrated nonfiction & biographies/background information for my retro fiction reading.

Saying that I have just finished two amazing non fiction reads that don't fit into either category.

The Chthonic Cycle by New Zealand author Una Cruickshank. Cruikshank has a curious mind & she goes all out when something interested her.

The Secret Painter very touching story about the author's Uncle Erick who secretly did more than 500 painting & sketches - & his talent is remarkable.

But the other non fiction I recently finished Poldark's Cornwall is me looking for more background material on a 20th century series that I am so far enjoying very much.

I read non-fiction, just not as much as I do fiction.
As for subject matter--history that intersects with archaeology, for example I just read and loved The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World's Oldest Writing. Or history intersecting with adventure, such as Mark Synott's The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest.
I am also a sucker for cosmology books/history of astronomy/current discoveries, etc. I don't always understand the math or the physics, but the ideas always hold my interest.
My physical TBR is full of American and Polynesian history books.
And I will usually read anything about codes and code-breaking.
My non-fiction 'want to read' list is vast and covers a lot more subjects. Who knows when one of the books on it will rise up and grab my attention...

Barb in Maryland wrote: "I read non-fiction, just not as much as I do fiction.
As for subject matter--history that intersects with archaeology, for example I just read and loved [book:The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeolo..."

Same here! I’ll see a list of “top 10 nonfiction books so far this year” and dive in, saving whatever captures my fancy to my TBR list.